A Father's Fight: The Interview With Baron Li

0:06 Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast where I tell stories of real crimes with real victims whose cases are so shocking that many are left wondering how is this even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections, and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator, dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so evil many feel they are unspeakable.

0:50 Warning. Unspeakable as intended for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey, y'all's cage. Kay, You're back for another episode of Unspeakable, and I am so excited for the one that I've got for you today. Now, if you're on my Patreon, you would know already actually who I'm going to be speaking with today, But if not, you are in for a treat. So do you remember the episode that I just recently dropped about a certain Baron Lee and his son Dragon and all that he went through during this custody issue with his son. Well, I have none other than mister Baron Lee on the on the show with me. So how are you doing?

1:34 Baron? Doing great? Kelly? Thanks? I am so excited literally to have you here and everyone in my household knows who you are because I was like, I talked to him. I talked to the Asian fifty cent. He's gonna tell me the story and he's gonna talk to me live. So I know that everybody's going to be just so tickled to No. Number One. I got so much feedback saying, oh my god, thank god he was okay. You know what a loss that would have been for everybody involved, and including your precious dragon that his daddy, you know, might have been just wiped off the planet for no good reason, you know. So I'm so glad that you're okay. Second of all, thank you for answering my messages and being willing to speak to me because. I'm your biggest fan. And guys that are listening, guys and gals, I said that before I ever spoke to the man. When I said I'm his biggest fan, I meant every word of it before I ever spoke to him. So let's start out with this. So I want to tell you all how it went.

2:26 It was kind of neat. So I was teaching that day at school and he had messaged me online and said, hey, I'd love to chat with you. And I happen to have an off hour, not an off hour if anyone's listening, it's a planning period. And I happen to need to use that hour to speak to Bearn. And so I went. Outside and parked my butt on a curb and we just had the best chat. We talked for over an hour, and there was so much that I don't think I on purpose. I know for a fact I didn't get it wrong on purpose. But you know, it's hard when you're learning just from research and from and watching videos and things like that. You try to put it all together and make it make sense. But you pointed out so many things that I don't think have been covered in depth on other episodes you've done with other maybe other podcasts or even with your.

3:14 TV special that you did. So when we spoke, first of all, let's go back to when you started saying when when the baby was first born? Okay? Or actually, can we go back to where y'all met? You said y'all met in Las Vegas? Is that correct? Yeah? I actually met her online. She claimed she was eighteen, and I really didn't want to have anything to do with her, and she kept messaging me every single day. We played a video game online and it was just one day she asked me a question about the power ball and said, if you want the power Ball, what would you do? And my reply was, I do nothing.

3:56 I'd be happy to just be able to have the ability to do nothing. She was like, So I asked her the same question, and she told me she wanted to change the FOSSE cure system. And so me growing up in foster care, that intrigued me, and I was just curious, and so I started talking to her wondering why that was her you know her response, and so that's how we started talking. Did let me ask you this too, because I'm just curious too. Do you talk about why you were in foster care at all? No? I hadn't mentioned anything to her at all, have you? But have you done it on any shows or any any of your writing. Such a little bit. I didn't really got into full detail. I mean, I grew I grew up in the foster cure system since I was three, so from greed and then I aged out at seventeen, So seventeen different placements, six group homes, in and out of Julie Detention centers.

4:47 So, yeah, and you never knew your parents, so to space. I did. I knew both my parents. I actually went back to live with my dad twice, once when I was nine and once when I was thirteen. Both times he wasn't ready to be a dad, and I ended up either going back to foster and the second time he sent me to a group home. I gotcha. So, were there drugs involved in that situation or just. Not just abuse? Just abuse, just abuse. That's kind of saying when people. When people hear about my shooting, I tell them that's not the first time I cheated death. You know. I was found in a bathtub in an inch of water when I was three years old. My parents had burned me with a clothing iron on both off my arms, both my legs, and I was laying in that for about three days, and the neighbors finally called the police because they heard some baby crying for three days and then when they found me, I was barely alive and they rescued me, and then I was putting foster care.

5:41 So is this one of those things where you want to love your parents, they made it hard to do that. Yeah, you know, the I think this is comic case for most most foster kids, even even though their abuse their parents are abusers, they always have that yearning to be with their parents. So you, I know, you think as a kid, you think, hey, if I be better, do different, they won't abuse me, They'll be my loving parent. You know, you have that hope, right, But it's not always the case. You know, I got you well, I guess to the young baron that went through that my heart is with you. And you know I've told you this that I'm a teacher and I've seen a whole lot of different circumstances that had I not been a teacher, I would have never believed, I would say, and never you know, people kind of squatch their face up. Really is that how that went? Yeah, that's how that went. It's exactly how that went. So to the younger you, I wish I could have helped you out there, but you know you turned out so great that this is just you're You're an example. I would say to young people who are struggling, maybe they're in the foster care system, or maybe they're in a situation where parents are not what we need them to be, or they're not capable that you can power through dig in and you can become an amazing individual.

6:56 And your story, you know, just began when you were little and you went through so much. So kudos to you, I guess in that regard, but thanks for letting me know. I was very curious of why you were in the foster care system. Would you say, having experienced it, did you ever have any foster placements that you really loved? So my second placement, I stayed there from age four or five till I was thirteen. I left them when I was nine to go live with my dad for a couple of months, but then I ended up going back to them. It's a really great placement. It was never meant to be long term, and so eventually they wanted me, not that they the system wanted me to either get adopted or go back with my real parents.

7:38 So I didn't leave them because there was any issues, but you know, the way the system set up, I wasn't meant to stay there. Do you have contact with them still? Yeah, actually to this day. We Actually my foster mom had two grown adult kids, and her daughter's husband lived with them as well, so all four of them raised me and Elouise far just passed away this Christmas Day, after the Christmas a couple a few months ago. And so she was ninety I think ninety eight or ninety seven, so she lived a really long life. But yeah, I've been in contact with them throughout my entire life because they've been a pivotal point in my life. Right, They've helped me with the values I have and still with me.

8:23 A lot of the beliefs that I shared to this day I attribute to what they did when they raised me. Even though the. God I was gonna say, God, Yeah, God, bless those foster care parents that are willing to do that and able to do that. What a gift. Okay, so you met her online, and your ex wife you met her online, and y'all met up in Vegas just to kind of see. Yeah. Well, the story went that she wanted to come down and meet me, and then I guess her mom was going through a custody battle with her siblings, and she asked if she could bring her two younger brothers with her as well, and I'm like, I don't care, sure, why not? And so they drove down to Vegas to met me, and they ended up staying with me for a few months and then and then when her mom came to pick up her brothers, she told her mom that she's going to stay.

9:14 She didn't want to leave, so she kind of showed up never left. Correct. Wow, Well, I guess at first that might would strike me as oh, she's really family oriented, and maybe that's a good virtue to see in somebody. But I like kids, So I mean at the time, I had no problem having kids around. I've always loved kids, and I've always wanted my own kids, so you. Know, yeah, Okay, I get it. And so y'all, how soon before y'all got married? How long did you date? So we met in October of actually, so October twenty eighties when we started talking. We met in January of two thousand and nine. We ended up getting married October tenth, twenty ten, so ten ten, ten.

9:57 Okay, gotcha? So, I mean you did know where it was, and like, you got married within thirty. Years, almost almost almost a full two years. Yeah. Married. Yeah, and then she gets pregnant. Correct, And there's no issues as far as with pregnancy and all of that. But she got mad about a comment that a doctor made. Yeah. Ok So a doctor told her you're putting too much weight on during your pregnancy and it's dangerous for the baby. And you know, I had done a lot of reading about because this is gonna be my first child, So I did a lot of reading and I had told her that several times before we went to the doctor's office. So to hear it from the doctor is like she was even more mad because I said it, right. Yeah, so she refused to go to have her baby, our baby born at that hospital and turned to a midwife's birthing center because of that.

10:48 Yeah, okay, and so you feel yes, I mean, I'm not putting words in your mouth, but do you feel like that played a role in what ended up occurring with Eric and his health? Yeah, in a couple of ways. It affected it, you know, with Eric getting sick and the malpractice one. You know, we didn't have the professionals. Maybe a hospital would have had to handle the situation when he was sick, and he wouldn't have gotten as sick as he did had we had gotten more information. Right. So the so the MD doctor at the hospital is the one who pissed her off because of the weight gain comment, which is true because I started gaining a ton of weight with my second one, and my doctor said, Kelly, you're gonna get birth to an elephant if you don't quit with all this weight gain. And he was right.

11:33 That was my biggest baby, was that one. But so she got mad. That's when she decided to go to the birthing center, which is where is that? Was that midwives or was. It Midwives Cascade Birthing Center and Everett. Yeah, and then she gives birth there, right, correct. So we go in. Uh, They're like, they're telling us that we have to come in just before she goes into labor, right, And so I did all the studies, you know, a mad to cervic see how far dilated they are, and I called in. I say she's ready to burst. We need to come in. They say you sure, you're sure. I'm like, yes, go in. We get in there, they stick her in the tub. Thirty minutes later, dragon pops out, full head of hair, healthy, healthy baby boy.

12:18 And yeah, and then we go home, you. Know, and no problems. He was a healthy baby. And everything perfect delivery. Yeah, okay, but then you said that, uh, shortly thereafter, you knew something was wrong or going wrong. So third day he started looking yellow, which I researched she was jaundice, and so I called the birthing center and I just thought her, Hey, you know, he's a little jarundice. Is there anything that we can do to bring it down or what should we do? And they're like, oh, just put him in the sunlight. He'll be fine. So I thought that seems weird, but okay, vite him in d maybe okay, So we tried that. It didn't work. Day five, he's still getting more yellow, and so I call again and they're like, oh, he's Asian, He's gonna be a little yellow. That's that's normal.

13:00 And I'm like, as if you don't know what Asian people like. That's weird. Yeah, I see, I thought that was weird. And then day seven, Uh, he starts just crying and won't stop, and which is weird because he was a very even cute baby. There was no crying up to that day. That was the first time he cried, and he kept crying crying. So I ended up brushed him to my family pedetrician and they say they look at him and say, oh, you need to get him to the hospital emergency room right now. And so we take them to Seattle Children's. The minute we arrive, they look at him and they're like taking them up to the newborn ICU and they shove us into a room and they're like, what's going on? You know, we had no clue what's going on?

13:44 And would they tell you once you got in the room with him? Was it kind of like momb was dropped? Right then that they start they start telling me, telling me that he's sick. So he said, they have a form of hyperbilirubin and they said, that's a severe case of John. This typically babies between level ten or fifteen. They are put under a blue light to kind of bring that down. Anything over twenty they will have to do a blood transfusion to take out the bad blood and put in new blood. But they said, my son was a forty seven, the highest day anyone has ever seen in that hospital. So and so I'm like, what does that mean? And then they start painting out these scenarios of what could happen, like he could be a vegetable, he could die.

14:28 Like this was no joke, not just a little yellow open in the sun. And then and I'm like, why why is this happening? And then they say, well, we discover that he has a rare genetic disorder called galactysmia. And I said, well's that and they say, well, glactose is broken down into two parts, glucose and galactose. Glucose gets burned in the body as energy. Galactos usually gets passed through your urine. A person with galact to see me, I can't break down galactos, so it stays in the bloodstream and ends up getting lodge in the. And basically poisons and poisons him. Yeah, and so you know, obviously I'm asking questions. I'm like, okay, well, then why weren't we told? Like that's all. It was like, we could have fed him, nourished, you know, some type of uh.

15:16 Because breast milk was breast milk is. The same thing, right, And yeah, We're like, we could have gave him some type of formula, right, And they're like yeah, and then why weren't we notified? They said, well, the genetic testing just got in today. Somebody submitted it yesterday. And I'm like, what do you mean submitted yesterday? They said, yeah. The person that took the genetic testing, which was a nurse that came out to our house a week, you know, a week before she left it in the back of her trunk for a week. She left the blood sample in the back of her trunk for a week, for a week. And so that baby suffered, yeah, for a week, and he had to be a terrible gas stro in testinal just disturbed.

15:56 Then the fact that he didn't cry to like day seven is just amazing. Yeah, tells you, you know what kind of resilience strength he had even as a baby. Yeah. And so had he been birthed in a hospital, I know, hindsight's twenty twenty, but had he been born in a hospital. That genetic tessing would have been done right there, and it would have been submitted right there. But all because of a angry over a weight gain comment. We got where we are. And that second part of that, the second part that would have been different if he had done in the hospital, because he was born in a birthing center. When we suit for mail practice, the maximum payout their insurance coverage was as a million dollars. Had he been in a hospital, we would be talking enough to take care of Eric for the rest of his life, you know, millions and mens.

16:42 More right, because a million dollars. I hate to tell everybody here, A million dollars sounds like a lot of money, and it's not. Especially I got a medical bill in today, not to tell my personal business here, my daughter had to go to the hospital thirty nine thousand dollars. I got a bill two day in the mail to day thirty nine thousand dollars. So when people are like, oh, you got a million dollars, so what right the rest of his life? The rest of his life, and. Say, you didn't even get it all that because thirty five percent goes to the lawyer. So he's end up with six hundred and fifty thousand. That's nothing, nothing exactly. That's shame for shame for. All because of you know, one comment that you can't handle because that was the truth. You know, And I had to tell you every I don't hate to tell you, you know.

17:23 So I'm from the South, you know that by now. But I'm blunt, and I tell you what, if you can't handle one comment about your weight, you're gonna have a hard time being a parent because everything everybody says is you know, good. Well you and I you and I share the same I shoot straight from the hip you know, I love it, really care whether people get offended or not, because yeah, I love it. Rather you hate me for who I am than love me for who I'm not. Amen, Mark that one, Jim, Mark that one. We got to put that on TikTok because I'm right there with you. You know, if you're easily offended, then I'm not your girl because I'm not here to make you happy. I'm here to tell the truth. And so, okay, so he comes home. Now he's got all these metal concerns and issues that y'all are having to really really look into. But you told me that, you know, you're going back to work and you're staying up all night, and can he kind of talk talk the listeners through what that was like?

18:12 Yeah, So it was about a year. It was started really around where he was about a year old. I had been bugging her to go back to work, because that was our agreement, you know, that she would go back to work. And it wasn't so much I needed the money. It was more of that I needed her to have that mental health situation. Staying at home with a disabled child and handling all that isn't it wasn't good for her, right and and obviously wouldn't be good for our relationship either. But she didn't want to. She wanted to stay home, watch TV and just do nothing and just keep Eric and we're dragging home like an invalid, you know. They didn't want to have him have a life, and so. So she wasn't like picking him up or taking him on walks or anything.

18:54 No, no, no, just he would be in like a little standard the infant standards have. She sits him in that and in front of the TV, and that's it, you know. And I'd come home and my son would be screaming, crying, soaking wet in his diaper, and I look at her and I'm like, what's going on. She goes, oh, he's been like that all day. I'm like, you're sitting here watching k dramas and he's like this, And I said, like, you know, emotionally, that's not good for him. And so it take me like two three hours to calm him down, soothe him and get him get them all ready, and then he finally fall asleep, like you know, one o'clock, two o'clock in the morning. Then I have to pass him off and then go try and get a few hours of sleep before I get up at five thirty six o'clock in the morning to go work and do this all over again.

19:41 Yeah, and I'm sure that's draining. I can't see a relationship going well when that is the standard. I could see her taking care of him all day and then saying, look, I need to go get a pedicure, or I need to go take a walk, or I need to go. You know, the Walmart, just to get a break or something. So let me ask you, did you think that she had mental health issues before he was born. No, so I I would say the depression from what happened. And this is the part where I can I can understand where she struggled, right like for for a mother to have to go through where she did, and I can see that. But what I couldn't put up with was the way she treated him after the fact, Like if you're not willing to you're going through your own problems, to recognize your problems, but don't make your child suffer because you're you're you're hurting or you're struggling with whatever it is you're struggling with. And that's the conversations I was having with her, and I kept telling her, you know, like, I can't keep doing this because at the end of the day, I got to look out for him. He's the he's the one that's important. Your mental health comes secondary.

20:47 I watched to get help, but I'm gonna worry about because. He can't help himself. He can't help him even as even as a regular baby. He can't help him. But he's got all these other things. So, you know, I said it before. I could deal with the bad wife, but I couldn't deal with the bad brother. And that was really the pivotl point of me deciding to leave is because I couldn't allow him to continue suffering. But there was something else going on too that you found out about. Yeah, she was being unfaithful. She was leaving my son with random people while she was going out and having an affair. And I was like, I don't care if you have an affair, but the fact that you're leaving in my medically fragile child with people that don't know how to minister to.

21:31 Like where'd she find them? Where she finds so many friends whoever was willing to to you know, yeah, take him and do let her go do her thing, you know, So her family was very supportive of her being unfaithful and doing all the things. Yeah they knew, so, I mean they knew. Yeah, that's a shame too that you've got. You know, children have to come first. I just I get frustrated when it comes to divorces and people would rather fight each other than love their kids. And that's easy for me to say. I'm not divorced, but you know, when you can't put your kids first, something's wrong. And whenever you can't look somebody now and go maybe you should get a divorce, not be cheating.

22:11 There's something tragically wrong there. So sorry, there was actually there was actually text so you know, I have access to all our texts, right, and so I was looking at the conversations she was. She was talking to her mom and her sister and telling her how she should siphon money from the account and put it into a different account and all this stuff. And then if he ever decides to leave you, then you need to you know, file you know, domestic charges against him and get the most child support. All this was plotted, I mean it was, It was already set up, and I didn't find out until after the fact. I was I didn't find these text messages. So I started doing my own investigation, like.

22:53 Well, no, wonder her mother was going through a custody dispute whenever she met you, So before you decide to leave or was it when you decided to leave, like with the home health nurse that came in and found dragon. Oh that was that was? That was well after? So this is so when I decided to leave. I came home, I picked up Eric, and I said, hey, I'm going to go out, and you know, we need to figure things out. I can't be with you anymore. And I was heading out and then she starts screaming, where do you think you're going. You can't leave me this, you can't take him. And then she starts pulling on him and starts screaming, and I'm like, stop, you're going to hurt him, like he's fragile. So I say, hey, here, just take him right and I gave him to her and she's still screaming. Cops, cops are called. They come out.

23:42 She's saying, he hit me, hit Eric, he broke furniture. Furniture, Yeah, he's busting up things around the house, all the things. And then I'm like, no, this's not none of that happened. And so the police realized that nothing happened, but they say, you guys have to figure this out. So I say, hey, if she's willing to leave, I'll let her take Eric and then we'll, you know, deal with this later in court. And so she agrees, and the cops says, okay, just you know, just don't get into another you know, disagreement, and just wait till the courts handled this. She didn't leave it at that. She came back two hours later, trying to get in the house. I already changed the locks.

24:27 No I wasn't. I changed all the locks, and so she's she's pounding on the door. So I call the cops again because I don't want to get you know, domestic. Second pair of cops comes and she said, oh, he's posting new pictures of me, and I'm trying to get in the house to see what. You know. Oh, I remember that now. So she accused you of posting nude photographs of her on social media. Correct. And so then I'm like, okay, I'm not doing those things. So where are they? Who? You know? She oh, it's on my friend's posts. Okay, what friend oh, they're already deleted it, okay, which friend R I can't remember. And I'm like, I'm looking at the cops and they're like, you know, you can get arrested and thrown in jail and serious crimes if you're doing this kind of stuff.

25:08 I'm like, sir, I just asked you, like, where's all this proof. There's nothing. It's all you know, false allegations. And they're like, well, I don't care. She's on the least. You can't keep she's on the d you can't keep her out of her house. And like I said, sir, we just had a police come here. We already made an agreement, and so they finally get her, convinced her to leave. And then yeah, and was there any follow up on the nude photo? Claims? No, No, it was right, Yeah, boy, it's just a ploy to get the cops to get her letter in the house. Right, would you know one what you know? Now? Would you have followed up on that to let the like the claims that she never followed a report on that though, right, she just said it in the moment.

25:51 That's a dangerous woman. That is a very obviously but knowing what we know, already. But that's a dangerous woman, and shame on any woman that would claim something and use the sex. You know, card, I guess just because you're a female that you're being victimized in this. Disgusting, Absolutely disgusting. So then what happened after that? So you left? Correct? No, she left, So she left, okay? And then two weeks later, I get a knock on the door. Police show up. They serve me with a restraining order and a protection order and tell me I have to vacate my home. And I look at the order and it says that I'm allowed to take my vehicle and any immediate personal belongings. So I got to pack a bag of clothes, but everything else had to stay and I was kicked out of my house.

26:40 That you're paying for that I'm paying with. The woman who's unemployed gets to stay in, Yes, make sure. You gets to move back in and I have to move out. But the way that she got that protective order, I touched on this that I think she got that protective order. I touched on this in a recent case that I did where she the woman went about it in a civil matter. So to my list, there's the one about the roommates. Where the roommate went and you know, filed paperwork saying she needed a restraining order in a civil manner so that she could take the sun. Isn't that kind of how this went down? And this is a later on I talked about this, but yeah, I mean it's a common tactic by the attorneys. So yeah, okay, so that's some total BS. So then lead me on to the next part.

27:24 So I ended up getting kicked out of the house and they tell me I have to show up the court in two weeks, uh to contest it if or else it's going to be, you know, stuck for a year. And I'm like, okay, I show up in two weeks. Then I present evidence to show them the police initial police report, show everything, and they're like, they threw it out with prejudice, reshaning orders gone, the protection orders gone. So for the listeners, they threw it out saying that they recognized this was total BS and that's why it's with prejudice saying this is obnoxious. Correct, Okay, And then I'm I'm that the parenting plan that they already have in place is that I have to pay nineteen hundred dollars a month in cash to her, plus pay the mortgage, both car payments, the insurance, and all the utilities. So total six thousand dollars a monthire in Washington at that time.

28:17 So, and the parenting plan was even was set up for y'all. A co parent, no no, So, so it was set up that I was only going to get two hours visitations twice a week. But there was a caveat to that. They because she told the court that my son is medically fragile and his father is incompetent and doesn't know how to raise him. If he's left with him more than two hours, he's gonna die exactly. So now, oh, I have to pay fifteen hundred dollars to a guardian in light them just to get supervised visits two hours twice a week. And so this was so important to me because none of this is covered. So it makes it just almost seemed like you just walked not walked away, but you just kind of I gave you that grace that I was like, I think this is more of he had to have distance because of the situation that was going on.

29:06 But this goes way farther. You have to pay fifteen hundred dollars a month to be supervised. To would you that was for the first visit, the first visit. That was for the first visit, just to get set up with a guardian ATLIGHTA And I all that you have to pay. Then you're supposed to pay you know everything? Yeah, whatever is right. And I'm not getting into your finances. I don't want to know, but six thousand dollars a month, how could any court expect any father to support? Listen. Father's rights I do think are an issue in this country. And that's why I'm so proud to have you on here, because I've known many a good dad that got defeated by. The court systems. And you have to still pay for your own place to live, You still have to pay your own medical bills, you still have to eat.

29:50 So, Kelly, since common sense isn't coming, let me break it down to you. Yeah. So when we were married, we didn't have nineteen hundred dollars in disposable cash. It went bills and everything, right. Yeah, So so I asked the judge, how am I supposed to give her nineteen hundred dollars, pay all the bills and then have some place to live, eat, pay for gas and all that. So you're you're adding another EXPENSI sure for me my lifestyle on top of what we already had. So it's nothing changes, right, Like I said, I didn't even have nineteen hundred dollars left over. How am I supposed to give her cash and then have more to take care of my stuff? Not to mention a down I got to thinking about that, like the down payment on an apartment, you have to give like a month ahead, like you could never You couldn't afford a cardboard box. I mean, I don't know you're finding just saying, you know, my god, Okay, so whatever, judge thought that was a good idea.

30:42 I hope you're listening and you're rethinking. I'll give you the name Commissioner Tinny. I hate I hate her, Okay, it's your story. So yeah, I mean, she she did me dirty and she didn't care, you know, even though she threw out the protection order, parenting plans stuck like they thought that was fair. Wow. Wow, So then how does he end up in foster care? How does Eric end up in foster care? Because you're clearly a loving father who cares. So during this time, there's a transition. So this we left in I left her in August and I went to court by September. This is all in place already, and I was struggling to obviously take care of this.

31:23 I was living out of my car in the middle of winter at a rest stop in Everett. And after the first visit they determined that I didn't need supervise visits. The guardian of item said, this is ridiculous. This father knows more about this child than I would be able to, you know, how to administer do everything. So I was to that person then yeah, yeah. So I had to do exchanges with Sharon, which was insane. The first exchange, I took the stroller out of the car and put it in my car, and then she refused to give me my son. And then she tried to take off, and I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa, and then she tries to run me over, actually literally floors it.

32:03 I end up jumping up on top of the hood because I didn't want to get runned over. Drove about a couple hundred yards. I rolled off the car, called the. Cops and what did they tell you this blue? The cops tell me Hey, you can't press charges. You have to deal with it in family court because they told you. It's a civil matter. Guys, hear me, Hello, hear me. If you're listening to this, someone smokes you with the car, it is not a civil matter, that is. But this is what I was dealing with. It crazy. And then I go to court and I'm trying to appeal. They won't let me appeal. The child support and the visitations, everything stays the same. Explain to them, I can't showing my past ubs everything. I come to find out my lawyer took her calculations and put it on my financial statements.

32:55 I didn't know, so, you know, first time, I've never been divorced. While you hire a lawyers, you think they're gonna Yeah. So, but my lawyer misrepresented my earnings. My lawyer said that I made eleven grand take home every month, and I'm like, I don't even net that much. I mean, I don't even gross that much. How do I net that much? Right? Like, it's insane. I mean I made a good living, but not that good, right, And so yeah, so I end up I end up fighting with her about these these things, with the courts and the courts won't listen to me. Then, But she tried to hit you twice. Well, so that's the first time. That's the first time. So so in the in between all of this, my son is being hospitalized, so she's not taking care of him.

33:40 He's getting hospitalized several times, and every time I go to visit, she's telling the doctors, oh, I got a parenting plan. He's not supposed to be here, so they kicked me out. I'd have to call social worker and get the pairing plan and they look at it and. See because if you because if you would have been arrested, then it just gave her more fuel to add to the fire. So you had to bite your tongue, go outside, call a social worker and say please come help me. Yeah, and she. Didn't even really know what to tell the hospitals about your son, right, you're the one that was trying to tell. Him, Oh no, so they'll uncover that the end of the day. She was purposely not telling them. She was trying to make it seem like he's just really medically fragile. Yes, he has some medical conditions, but not to a point where he needs to be hospitalized every other week. You know, so got it and I ended up so I ended up having I end up having to finally go back to court because they want to put a benchmarn on my head because I can't pay my child.

34:37 Support even though you keep saying you can't and I can't. I said, I can't keep up. There's no it's impossible. So they gave me an ultimatium. I come up with twelve or fourteen I can't remember exactly why. I know it was more than twelve grand. Or you're gonna throw me. In jail while you're living out of your car. Oh, I'm living out of my car. To rest up. Makes perfect sense. So that's when I made a decision that I stay here and get get thrown in jail. And I spoke to a social worker at Seattle Trojan Sign and I won't use her name, but she basically said, Baron, I see what you're going through, but I want to tell you something. Until your son is taken by CPS or something, no one's going to do anything. You're not going to be able to do anything. And the last thing you want to do is be thrown in jail, because once you're in jail, you're never going to be able to get your son back, She says, my suggestion would be to leave the state. That's why she told me.

35:31 Well, sounds like the lady knew what she was telling. You know what. She was giving you solid advice, even though it sucks, but that was solid. But then during another exchange, what happened? You told me that Sharon put the baby put Dragon on the floor. Yeah. So after so after I went back to Vegas, I actually ended up getting a phone call from CPS about fifteen months later or so telling me that he almost died in her care. And that's when that nurse found the found him. The nurse in home nurse had come uh in the morning to check on him, and Sharon decided to take off the school and and Dragon was barely breathing, he was cold to touch, and uh, he was soaking wet.

36:19 She hadn't done anything to him, and so nurse calls nine one one. They rushed him to the hospital. They're able to you know, revive him and get him more stable. But then they start talking and they realized that Sharon had requested a DNR, which is a do not resuscitate order for Eric. And it was weird because he does. He's done. He's not in that kind of condition that he shouldn't need one, right, he's the. He's dependent on y'all to feed him and all of that, but he's not like he can't take his own breaths. You know, he's okay. Yeah, So they investigated, and she has done this multiple times. She went from one hospital to the next and trying to get this DNR. And then they find out that she was trying to requests a trait to be put in his throat, and that's when the red flags go off.

37:05 They call CPS. CPS comes in, they do the investigation, they find out that she's not fit obviously to be a parent, and the hands up in foster home. Okay, So to make it make sense though, so whenever I told y'all if you were, if you're on my Patreon, I had message and said, this is so much darker than you can imagine. A mother who leaves her child on death's door, and it sounds to me like she wanted him dead when the nurse got there, like she was hoping something would happen. But and then to go in and request a trait when he doesn't need one. An unnecessary medical procedure and to request that they not do life saving measures for a child who doesn't who's just not there. You know, it's much deep more devious than it sounds. But he gets put in foster care because everyone else is like, oh shit, this woman's nuts or why no, we'll get there.

37:53 But so I get a phone call. They're they're like, hey, Baron Dragging is in foster care. Do you want to, you know, have him sent to you? And I'm like, well, what does what do you guys mean? He goes, well, you need just to have an adequate place for him to live in medical stuff. I said, well, yeah, but all his doctors are in Washington. I said, you know, all his care teams in Washington. I said, I'm going to come back up. I knew I had a bench warring in my head and I said, I'm going to come back up and I'm going to fight for him. And what a big move. I know you know this, but I have to say it. You put your son first, You move to your son. That's where his doctors and his specialists are. If that doesn't speak volumes to anyone who was invested in this case, I don't understand you'll up end your life and come well, your life's already up in it. But to come back and to say no, I want him.

38:43 So that was the argument. When I came back to see the judge, I pleaded. I say, hey, you know, I could have easily stayed in Vegas and had my son sent to me, and I could have been done with Washington. But I'm here for my son. I'm here for what's best for him, regardless of what everybody's done to me. I said, I want to make sure my son has the best chance at life right, and so that means me coming up here with the possibility of going in jail, so be it. But I said, it won't do him any good for me being jail. The only thing I ask is get rid of this ridiculous child support. I said, make it manageable. And thank god, I was in front of a different judge and he looked at it and he was like, this child support is egregious. That's what his exact words. He goes. He goes, you shouldn't be paying this much. Kills eight hundred dollars a month, and then we'll do three hundred dollars a month in back support. So I said eleven hundred, I can manage that and do that. But they still wouldn't give him to me. They tell me, oh, now you've been out of his life for fifteen months. You don't know anything about him. Things could change. I'm like, I know everyone saw, I know. What do you want? And so they're like, oh, well, we're going to do a dependency case and we're going to give you visitations. We're going to give mom visitations, and he's going to stay with in fosterne. This goes on for two years, and during that two years, we have to exchange you know, Eric, back and forth, and this leads to this leads to the second attempt of my life. Okay, so during an exchange, uh,

40:16 she she's pissed off, saying, oh you're late, you know, and starts cursing. And this is in front of my entire family. So I have my step kids and me and Eric. Oh yeah, because you're remarried. Are you remarried by this time? Yeah? Yeah, So we had relocated the whole family up here right yeah, with Eric and stuff, and she's she, uh, forgot to leave one of his either it was a medical device or something. So I'm trying to wave her down like she's in her car. I'm not trying to waive her down here. But this was vital equipment, correct this. You needed it? Right? Yeah? And I'm standing. I'm standing like there's the police station, there's a parking lot, and in this car. So I'm walking towards my car. She comes running at me and I'm trying to stop her, and she just floors it. I ended up jumping out of the way push off the side of her car, thankfully, or else she would hit me. Caught on video in front of a police department, right, because that's why we're doing it, because I'm yeah, for the safety, my safety, my son's safety, my family safety. Guess what I got told?

41:15 Civil matter? Civil matter, civil matter, deal with it in family court and family court say the same thing, exact same words. You guys got to learn to cole parent better. How do you co parent with crazy? That should be a shirt. That should be a shirt. Give everybody one when they leave family court. How do you go parent with crazy? You know, as much as much as I detested her, I could have co parented if she was willing, but she right. But not when you're running somebody over, attempting to run somebody over. And what did she do though? Whenever she laid him on the ground, didn't. She So after two after two years of going back and forth and all this going on, uh, one of the finest shawl was when I went to do this extra change. Instead of her handing me to me or putting him in the wheelchair, she throws him on the ground on the lobby floor, right and starts writing out screaming.

42:10 This is all caught on video. That was what the finally the judge said, oh, okay, she's not all there supervised visits. We're going to give physical custody to that and we're going to transition him. So years but two years of his life that you could have been bonding, you could have been u Yeah, you could have been working with him and trying like we had spoken about to about the pathways and the brain and maybe stimulating him and getting him into and. All that's lost. Yeah, right, lost time. So then. You're looking more than two years, right, two years independency and almost the two years prior to that too, So four years total of development loss because he wasn't getting the adequate support.

42:53 In right, Yeah, what a shame. So he man from birth? From birth? He was, he was. Yeah, I thought I thought. I thought I had it bad. He That's why I tell people like, I don't even swept my life compared to my son. Yeah, he's more an inspiration to me than any anything else because and so loved. Yeah, he smiles, he laughs. I mean, guess his blessing, you know. Yeah, No matter how much adversity he's gone through, you know. He keeps going. So what about this though? So she was diagnosed with munchaus incorrect or not so. So a couple of times we've we've gone through this where she ordered psyche valves for me. So I'm like, okay, we can do that. That means I get to get a psyche vowl on you.

43:40 Yeah. And yeah, uh proxy by Munchausen and uh, delusions of grandeur. Yeah, they're all all the diagnosis that they did of her. Yeah. And so this is where I want to get down to how dark it really was. So what is the overall a consensus here that you told me about? Okay? So obviously the money okay, but you told me these exact words. She was too stupid to realize something. What was it. Yeah, she was doing this for the money. She thought that she's gonna have access to the trust. So the way the trust is set up, I put six hundred and fifty thousand dollars into a special needs trust. We are not allowed to touch that even if I had custody or she had custody. That's strictly for medical needs only.

44:29 That money would grow tax free and whatnot. When he's eighteen, then that money would be used to care for him. However, there is a clause if he dies before he's thirty, there's a minimum payout that we would get for the beneficiaries that be me and sharing. But she didn't realize. In the state of Washington, which also is the same way I think in the state of California, all proceeds go to pay back Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, whatever before the beneficiaries get anything. There was not enough money in there to pay us anything in the event of him. But so she was trying to kill him, yes, because she thought she would get the payout.

45:12 Correct. See in mind she denies it, but the reality, all the things that she was doing was. Trying finding him cold, finding him wet. No, he did die, die based off medical reasons. Yeah, and do not resuscitate. It all makes so much sense. You know, in my mind, I'm thinking, oh, well, she just wants the money. I didn't realize she couldn't get it unless he died. And that's so much darker. That is so much darker, Like I wasn't the target my son was. Yes, I was the only I was only in the way. Had I stayed away, my son would have been dead. Absolutely. I agree with you one hundred. Because what would end up happened is after he went to foster care, eventually they would have given him back to her and she would have another TEX.

45:56 And then she would have all these hospitalizations behind her to say, see, I told you, I told you he was medically fragile. Wow. So and even today this blew my mind. Even today, you are not his guardian. I don't have legal custody. You do not have legal custody of your son, even to this day, right now, February seventeenth is the day we're recording this. You do not have custody of your son. No, what will change that? So I have to go to family court and get the parenting pen rechanged. And in order to do that I have to go through a trial, and where is she.

46:40 She's incarcerated for. Trying to have you murdered, And because she's incarcerated, you can't have the trial. So when she was in county, they wouldn't allow us to go and do it in family court. So once she got sentenced, I had to go and petition to reopen the family court case, so that it took almost a year. I just recently got that reopen. Now it's a matter of me getting an attorney and the funds and everything together. Eactly, just the hard part, right because I've already spent upwards with sixty thousand dollars in lawyer fees and everything over the years fighting fighting this. So I can't believe there's not an attorney out there.

47:21 I've got listeners in Washington. I cannot believe there's not one that couldn't do this pro bono for you and slide it through the system so that baby can be on paper exactly where he needs to be with his daddy. Hey, I'm challenge. We're gonna start the year off with the challenge. Come on, y'all, somebody's got to be able to help this man, you know, I wish I could. I wish I had, you know, but I'm not. You know more about anything than I do as far as the court systems, you know, having lived it. But I wanted to ask you this too. I'm gonna flop. Sideways real quick though, because I do want to talk about the court system with you. But talk to me about that morning now, since I have you right here. You walked out. It was a normal day. And I know you've told this story, but did you like looking back on it? Do you realize more things than maybe you?

48:06 You know how the longer you you, as time goes on, you kind of can remember more things about what was going on. What was that like? Seriously talk to me like someone put nine bullets in you. Well, first of all, a normal Friday, I wouldn't be going out to work Friday at five o'clock. We normally are taking Eric to go and spend a weekend with his mom. So Friday morning, says a family, typically we get have breakfast, get ready to get dressed, and we're gonna go out and spend the day together. So typically at ninth nine thirty, we're coming out of the house as a family. But that day was different. Because one of my co managers at Beer and Toyota was on vacation and as another manager or salary we asked to come in. We got to go in, so I was going into work. So it was eight twenty I you know, I said goodbye to Dragon and Didi and and my step kids were in Florida at the time.

49:02 They were with their grandma. All right, grandparents, right, grandparents? Yeah, yeah. So I was walking out and I just hit my fob to unlock my car door and I pop, and I thought was I thought it was fireworks, So I looked over to my left. I didn't see anything, so immediately I looked to right because I want to see my surroundings. I see a guy running at me firing. First shot hits my arm, shatters my arm. I end up dropping the fob and I'm like, oh crap. And then I think, tell myself, I'm going to run to my car and try and use that as shelter. As I'm running the car, he's still firing at me. And then I finally and he doesn't say a word. No, He's got a mask and some weird green kitchen gloves, and so he's about I would say fifty yards out when he started shooting at me, and so I take a shot to the back of my right leg. I end up falling to the ground and he's still shooting at me. So I'm trying to get behind the car door and hiding.

49:59 And can you even can you even process why? Like are you wondering why in that moment? Or was it strictly survival? Oh? No, it was more like I'm at first it's where I'm going to go. So I'm looking at like what what I can do to best protect myself in this situation? Right like, and so that's all I'm thinking, like, and then am I going to die? Right? At one point I tell you where I felt that. But he comes around the corner. I look up, he shoots me. He goes right in my chest, and I'm like, oh shit, I'm going to die. I'm like literally gonna die. So I'm like, where do I go? My arm is shattered, so I just dive into my car put my head under the wheelwell so he can't shoot my head. Yeah, and he just starts firing the rest of up and down the left side of my body. Then I see him and I'm like looking back, like that I see him picking up casings and he runs off. So then I fall out of my car, laying on the ground bleeding.

50:55 I hear my neighbors saying, hey, are you okay? No Swiss cheese, bro be shot. They're like, where are you shot? I'm like everywhere, Yeah, everywhere, like literally everywhere. And so and I want you to know I listened to that no One One call and your voice, Oh yeah, and you can tell, you can tell. And you said, I can't film my arms he was. It was numb. I couldn't. I couldn't move my arm. That was that was the hardest part. It was just I didn't know how to tell you. You can feel like, imagine your your army is so heavy. Yeah, you can't lift it up. That's how you know. Yeah, I couldn't move it at all.

51:36 And I was like, and you were screaming for Eric too. Yeah I was. I was saying, telling my wife, you know, watch out, you know, watch you know, watch Eric, because. You thought they were after him. You really in your mind right then, you thought it was her. Yeah. Yeah, but I love the freaking slick broke. I'm sorry. I know we're talking about you getting shot, but when you came out, bro, pretend me and you were having a beer right now. You said the shooter was too thin to be by ex fell out my chair. I said, what a freaking slick cut down. I'm sorry. I know, I know you were shot. I'm sorry, but I thought I don't know if you meant it like that. I did. I knew it was her, I just didn't know who she said sent. Yeah, And at first my first thought I thought it was actually one of her sisters that she sent. I didn't tell others. Girl, but the body stature I thought was her sister Priscilla or sister Sheila that had come.

52:32 But but wasn't. It wasn't. So when did you? So? When did you? So you get to the hot do you do? You lose consciousness at all? So one of my funny stories. So once once they get there, police turn to kick me up. Then the paramedics show up. I say goodbye to my wife. She's telling me, don't worry, I got this. You'll be okay. You're gonna make it. They put me into the ambulance and at that point I'm just at peace. I feel at peace. They're literally ripping clothes off and trying to find all the bullet wounds, and I just feel myself falling asleep. I don't know, and it's not like you kind of you're tired, but you're just like at peace.

53:17 You're warm and cozy and laying. In the metal. I feel like, you know, I could lay here all day, right, And so he shakes me. He goes, hey, darent, you gotta stay awake. I'm okay, okay, okay, and then it happens again. I'm ready to pass and then I feel this searing pain in my left arm. He sticks his finger in my wound, and I'm like, fuck, fuck, don't do that. I'm awake. I'm awake. And from that point I stayed up the whole time. Hey, well he kept you awake, didn't he kept me awake? Wow? And I saw the photo too. I posted it on my Patreon of you with some of the first responders that that helped you, that showed up. And by the way, that is what I teach. I don't know if I told you the or not, but it's not a one dispatch and I teach fire, police and medical, and so that was that was really cool to me today.

54:04 They were it was nice to be able to do that episode with them. We got to meet them, and uh, I had never I hadn't been able to speak to any of the first responders until that day when we actually shot. So it was nice to be able to finally meet them. And then I thought, what a badass that you stood up for that picture, for your for your kids. You still That was the day after surgery, and like I said, I didn't want my step kids to see me laying in the hospital dying, and I didn't want them to think, you know, the worst. I wanted to give them that hope that there's you know, I'm okay, I'm gonna make it. Yeah. I didn't know if I was gonna make it, I know, but I wanted them to believe it at least, right. Wow, And that says a lot, I'm telling you, just says so much as a dad that you care enough to the small things, you know, the small things that those all the babies knew that you were you were going to be okay, and at least felt like you were going to be okay. So let me let's talk about this. When they told you who had shot you, when you found out, what did you think, Well, I knew no, but I mean that it was teenagers.

55:06 Oh when I found it was teenagers, Yeah, it was shocked. I was shocked the fact that that teenagers would do it in the first place, and second that she would involve like teenagers like that. Really it It took me months to like talk think about what I wanted to do with the situation. And yeah, like I totally in the court, like she didn't only victimize me, but she victimized those two boys in their families as well. You know that they're young, and they're impressionable, and I know people are like, damn, they shot somebody, and I agree stupidity at its finest, but again, yeah, kids that they are, they are. They still try to kill you though, And if you weren't speaking to me right now, it wouldn't be so kind, like for real.

55:51 But you know, like I said, I say it in court too, like you know, I grew up with hate and anger and resentment and all that, and I understand. I don't know the upbringing of the case. I know after talk to Quincy's found me he came from a. Good absolutely and you can tell the social media that he came back. I don't know about Joseph. You know, like Joseph, what kind of place he had to have been to make that choice? Right? I like to decide that that's the thing, that's the part that makes me want to have compassion because I remember a kid. People wrote me off without getting to know me. Yeah, I did some horrible stuff, but they didn't know why and why I did the things I did. You know the life I grew up.

56:34 So let me ask you this question, And you may not like it, but I want to know if you wouldn't have survived, would you feel the. Same way if I didn't survive. If you didn't survive and Dragon was left without his daddy and your step kids were left without you, indeed, he was left without you, would you feel the same way? Yeah? I would. I'd still be I'd be disappointed and sad. Right. I don't think the outcome changed the way their intentions either way, right, Like my intentions shouldn't change it either way, too. I understand. I mean, in the beginning, it was, like I said, it took me months to think about it and what I wanted to do. And so when I actually had talked to the prosecutors about reducing their sentence and stuff.

57:18 It wasn't something I made a decision over like overnight, but I had to weigh in my own experiences, my own life, my own up and also what I wanted to see for these boys. I want to be able to see that they can move past a horrible mistake that they made. It really is and you know, who knows, maybe they can be a soldier one day and advocate for others well. And Quincy wanted to go into the military. I mean from what I gathered from his social media and some other stuff. I mean I really dove in and looked, and it seemed like he wanted to go military. But he was treading that line. He seemed like one of those kids that I'm not saying he was a bad kid, but he seemed like one that was kind of tread in the line. I see him at school all the time where they have the potential to be absolutely fantastic or to go completely south.

58:06 The influenced influenced it. Yeah, and so have you spoken to either of them. Either? No? So there there. They have a lifetime no contact order with me. The prison does allow them if they want to like write a letter and stuff. It goes into it. But you have to initiate the victim of dialogue. Right. If I want to read it or it's something, it's up to me. But they'll notify me, but they won't. Do you want to read it if they write something? If they do, yeah, I would I you know, I don't want to close out that if they're looking for forgiveness or their so I mean, I know Quincy already has asked. I already told them. You don't even have to ask. I've already forgiven you, guys. But if it makes peace for them, then yeah, I would love to be facilitate that for them.

58:52 And again, all kudos to you. But the som bitch who actually shot you, if he does not write a letter and apologize, then I'm and I listen. I know you're the victim. That's your story, but something to me wants to go. Let me tell you something, Padna. You've got a gift here of a man. You're a gift, you know, and a gift to be willing to go for and say reduce it. And you don't even bother to write a letter. Well, that was my message to him in the court when he was getting sentencing. So I did get to address him and get to address the court. And did they look at you? Yeah? Yeah, I told him, I said, you know, you come in here. You're not as remorseful as as Quincy was.

59:35 And you maybe I have second, you know thoughts about you know, doing what I did. But you know, I hope you understand that there's you know, you have this opportunity to make something of yourself. You know it's up to you. Now, God, what a gift you gave him, the gift of a lifetime if they waste it. Yeah, but that's all I can do. Yeah. Yeah. Well the other thing too, before we wrap it up, is that you have a you're real big into the foster care system and making changes correct and you have a your bike number. Yeah, there's a couple of things. So I'm no longer on the board of directors for Route twenty one because of my business. There's a conflict, so I've stepped down to just be on the board of board of advisors now.

1:00:24 But Route twenty one is a nonprofit. We set up to take kids that were in foster care in their twenties and thirties and we pay them to mentor kids that are currently in care. Now, and so our goal is to obviously give them the tools needed so when they hit adulthood, they're not part of the system where they're good traffic, drugs, incarceration, homelessness. And I preach a lot about how we have a lot of programs out here to address a lot of these social issues that we're talking about, but I call them reactive reactives. Right, they're not stopping anything, they're just treating. The We need proactive, not react proactive.

1:01:07 So what we're doing is most people don't realize all these social issues. If you look back, a majority a good portion of them stem from people that were in false care. So we can stop the cycle by giving these kids the ability to stay out of that, then we don't have to deal with it down the road later on when they're homeless and they're Yeah, that's the idea. I've always said this. I think it's kind of bizarre how we force schools to do bake sales to help kids that are we're trying to help succeed, but prisons are given everything. It's like we've got to just ask backwards, you know. But we we yeah, we spend I guess you know, I don't even want to get political, but yeah, there's so much government waste when you come to these programs. Yeah, and that's why we need people to start, you know, other organizations and and reach out and as much as possible.

1:02:01 You know, we can only do so much in our neighborhood. But guess what, it only takes one two children to survive and do well and they can go and be the next Elon Musk who knows and yeah, changes they can make. Right? Is that is that root twenty one r o u t E two one at what is this? It's actually RTE twenty one dot org and that's the website. Okay, and we're gonna link it. We'll link it in the show notes too, if anyone wants to. Go to it. It's also in my link tree. My link tree is a link tree slash. Baron b Lee Okay, and we're gonna also put your link tree in the show notes. There's also your big yeah, your link tree. Y'all need to go follow him on all.

1:02:45 Of his socials because he puts great videos. If you can go see Dragon too, see him just his favorite sushi place that y'all go to eat. I saw a picture of that the family and it's just good quality content. And I don't know if you wanted me to say this or not, so you let me know. But the truth of the matter is that everything that Baron's gone through and that Eric continues to go through, and everything cost a lot of money, and so any views and things like that help to support the changes you need, for example, having you know, the cost to have you be his custodial parent, you know all of that. If you can just go follow him, you know, go follow him on all of the socials. Again, we'll link it for you at the bottom of the show notes.

1:03:26 That would mean a big That would mean a lot to me. I know it'd mean a lot to you, and y'all can follow Dragon and his daddy on their adventures and the things that they're doing. I wanted to share something with you. You'd be the first person to actually have heard what we did. So last year in June. My business partner and he's actually in Route twenty one. He's one of the mentors and I actually met him. He's a previous foster child. He and I both started a general contracting company. Between both of us, we have more than forty placements in Foster Care. Wanted to create a company where we can take age out foster kids and give them a job in the construction field. But I'm not looking at giving kids just the job. Our goal is to eventually make them become business owners. Like we want to empower these kids to have their own businesses, run their own businesses, and then be able to give back to the community. So that's kind of why I step down from Route twenty one because I'm actively working on this project right now and we're in the process of possibly opening up a couple more job. One is a drywall company and another one it's a pressure washing business.

1:04:39 I love this career and tech ed man. That's where it's at. Yeah, we're gonna co partner with who are you know, one of these kids to run their own businesses and give them all the twos and teach them how to network, how to do stuff. I don't even advertise for my own business and we're booked every single day. So that's the other part I want to teach them is like there's a lot of marketing skills that's started to run a business. You don't even have to pay for advertising to do that. So Yes and I'll encourage you too. You didn't ask for this, but I'll encourage you in your area to link up with your schools because like our schools here, we do internship programs and where this would be beautiful for these kids that are in this that they would leave school and then they could go work and do their internship with you, you know, so never never, you know, down where schools can.

1:05:23 We have a lot of organizations out here that work with kids, and so I've through Route twenty one, I've already had connections with those people. The nice thing is that when I started my advocacy, once I realized I had a platform and people wanted to hear me, I started talking about my interest in helping foster kids. So I've had quite a few people. It's how I met Rick Nowell, who's the founder of Route twenty one. I actually mentored him for a year to help him get this nonprofit started. So those are the things that this door is. These these uh you know talking about doors opening. The shooting has opened up so many more doors for me and my family. That and I'm able to do more things and give back. So my career now isn't about me. It's about how much more I can affect and how much more people I can serve, And it's it's much more fulfilling than doing what I did before.

1:06:14 And I was successful at what I did before. Yeah, a great salesperson. I've been in sales my entire life. But this is much more fulfilling and I get to work with great people. Well, I wanted to. I want to say this and I mean it with all the genuineness in my heart. I am your biggest fan. I am Eric's I guess i'll say second Dragon's second biggest fan, because I know you're his biggest fan. And I hope that when we hang up that you'll go give him a hug and tell him I'm sending him a special treat that I made for him. And I'm sending you a T shirt too. I told you I was, so you're looking in the mail for that. I want to thank you so much. Well, I appreciate it, I you know, for you taking the time to talk with me and giving me this platform to tell a little bit more, like you know, in depth, because a lot of the platforms I'm not saying that they did don't want to just time constraints, it's hard to tell this whole story. Yeah, I have a lot more to share it too.

1:07:06 Well, I'm always here and anything that I can share, I'm gonna go follow you on my socials too. I think I did on some of them, but you know, I'm gonna go do that. Tool. By the way, you're so adorable. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Well, look down here in the South, we're fans of Barren Lee, and we're fans of Dragon, and I hope that y'all just do great things, and I hope that things turn out as best as possible for you and your family. Well, we take a road trip down there. I'm gonna definitely come in. Please do come see me and Jim, Jem and I Jim, Me and Jim, Jim Jim. All right, So for me and Jim and everybody in South Louisiana, thank you so much. Baron. Give Dragon a hug, and we can't wait to see everywhere that y'all go.

1:07:48 See you later.