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I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal Season 6, Episode 3, Probable Cause.
In our last episode, the harassment campaign was a success. But now, we're going to talk about the
in our last episode, the harassment campaign was a success. But now, we're going to talk about the
against Carl, his boyfriend Drew, and their friend Paul reached new heights.
Carl's ex-boyfriend denied he was behind the attacks.
Even after being questioned by a mutual friend and by his probation officer,
Adam swore he didn't do anything wrong.
Carl thought he was lying, but he was probably back to drinking.
And that was the perfect setup for the real perpetrator.
The real person behind the harassment?
He was someone who'd been there all along, serving as a shoulder to cry on,
and doing everything he could to place the blame on Adam.
I knew Adam was getting out of jail, so I wanted to pose as Adam because it was an easy scapegoat.
The man you just heard, you've actually met him already.
Release your inhibitions, feel the rain on your skin.
He was Carl's best friend, Paul Augustine.
Now you know the truth, but here's the thing.
During the escalating campaign of harassment in 2023,
Carl, Drew, and police detectives had no idea whatsoever.
Everyone was focused on Carl's ex-boyfriend Adam, which was Paul's intention all along.
And Paul played the part of the concerned friend perfectly.
To Carl and Drew, he wasn't a suspect.
He was another victim of Adam's.
Remember, Paul had also been receiving harassing texts.
Just realize that Carl's attempts to lie to you or whatever dude he's involved with at this point in his life is so beyond ridiculous.
Paul sent himself that message.
It was an effective cover.
He couldn't be the perpetrator if he was a victim.
With Paul, the harassment escalated over time, just as it did with Carl.
In November,
2023, Paul received this text from an unknown number.
Someone's not going to make it out of this alive.
And if you're stupid and show him this message, it just might be you.
It was a direct threat.
And Paul was completely freaked out.
He called me up, very shaken, crying on the phone and fearing for his own safety.
And when I heard him upset, it did deeply affect me.
Hearing Paul in distress,
it only reinforced what Carl already believed.
They were victims of the same person.
And they were in real danger.
The day that text came in, Carl told Paul he needed to go to the police.
And he did.
Paul filed a police report of his own on November 13th, 2023.
Since Paul lived outside of Kenosha, he needed to contact his local precinct.
An officer from Wauwatosa PD was sent to Paul's home.
That interaction was recorded on police body cam.
Nice to meet you.
Steve, nice to meet you.
How's it going on?
So me and, okay, a couple of my other friends, they live down in Kenosha.
For a while, we've been kind of harassed and we were like 99% sure that we know who the person is.
They were, you know, actually in jail for what, about a year and a half or so.
Mm-hmm.
And it was the ex-boyfriend of Paul.
Mm-hmm.
Of one of my friends.
Paul explained that he and his friend Carl, and Carl's new boyfriend Drew, had all been targets of the same man.
And after months of trying to ignore it, the harassment had reached a fever pitch.
So, like, someone's not going to make it out of this alive.
Like, it's not directly saying, oh, I'm going to kill you, but it's the implication.
I think I would take that that way.
I think most people would.
It was a random phone number.
I can give you the phone number if that helps.
Yep.
We have stuff that we can punch in phone numbers and see if they are assigned to somebody.
The issue if this is just a random generated number, it's not going to show up as any problem.
Yeah.
Paul seemed particularly interested in how the police would be able to track down the caller.
I don't know what you guys can do, but, like, you can't read text messages from a random device.
No, nothing like that, no.
Oh, okay.
That you need to search one for.
That'd be a little.
That's a little more intense.
Yeah.
I don't know how, like.
How bad the threat is, you know.
Yeah.
Paul nodded along with Officer Mills, but this was new information for Paul.
Officer Mills said it would take a pretty serious threat, like a domestic terror threat,
to issue a search warrant.
And a search warrant would be the only surefire way to unmask the perpetrator.
So, for the moment, the real identity of the person behind the chaos remained a secret.
Carl was relieved that Paul was not the one who was behind the chaos.
Carl was relieved that Paul finally filed a police report.
He was looking for any way to get law enforcement to take the harassment seriously.
Because now, he was getting spoofed constantly.
There were days where he received dozens of calls.
I get spam calls a lot.
You probably do, too.
You see a random number pop up on your phone.
You pick up.
Sometimes, it's a sales call masked behind a local phone number.
Other times, no one's on the other line.
You hang up.
up, and you go about your day. The spoof calls Carl received
were entirely different.
First of all, most of the calls
weren't showing up as random numbers.
Instead, he'd actually see his friend's name
pop up on his phone,
or his uncle's name, his sister's.
You think it's your uncle, your sister,
you pick up, what's on the other line?
Nothing.
Just 10 seconds of silence.
But to Carl, that silence wasn't empty.
It felt threatening.
So whenever Carl picked up the phone
and was met with silence on the other end,
his mind went to a dark place.
That someone had it out for him,
and they would stop at nothing.
What's the big fear?
What's the worst case scenario in your head?
I'm concerned that somebody could be coming for me.
That somebody's going to assault me.
If not me, then Drew.
At this point, I'm especially hypervigilant.
As soon as I get in my car,
I'm checking the back seats
to make sure that there's nothing planted there.
When I'm laying in bed,
I don't sleep because that's when my sense of hearing,
I pick up on everything.
And every time Carl felt his phone buzz,
that same panic set in.
His body tensed.
His heart rate skyrocketed.
It wasn't just an irritating call.
It was a reminder that somewhere out there,
his ex-boyfriend Adam was listening,
plotting.
Refusing to let him go.
All this made it harder than ever to show up
as a friend, a partner, and a son.
Take this one moment in fall 2023
when Carl's mother had a medical emergency.
My mom called me and said,
I need you to take me to the hospital
because she's feeling all this pain in her back
and in her chest and down her arm.
Carl got right in his car,
picked up his mom,
and rushed her to the ER.
The hospital quickly determined,
that it was a heart attack.
It's one of those moments when time slows down.
Carl watched ER doctors and nurses surround his mom.
She's like a rock to me in so many ways.
I always come to her with an issue.
There would always be some way to figure it out.
Even when things were volatile,
like, it'll be okay.
It'll be figured out.
This should have been a moment
where he could just support his mom.
Instead, he was getting call after call,
seemingly from his sister.
But when he picked up,
there was always silence.
The calls were all fake.
He believed that somehow,
Adam found out about the heart attack.
Adam was capitalizing on his mom's illness,
kicking Carl when he was down.
How could you be so sick
as to fuck with my mental state right now
just as I'm family members in the hospital?
To Carl, it was a clear sign that Adam had changed.
That he must have lost his mind.
He's hacking my fucking phone.
He's hacking my phone.
He has to be.
Like, he must be spying on me somehow.
Nothing here makes sense right now.
And that's the only plausible explanation.
And if he'd stoop this low,
if he'd take advantage of a moment of crisis,
what would he do next?
I'm talking to police officers from the hospital,
expressing like, hey, what the hell's going on?
What are we going to do?
What are we going to do about this?
It was like I was in a glass box
that everybody could see me, like,
screaming and screaming and screaming,
but did nothing about it.
Like, they just passed me by.
I could just scream into the wind
and nothing would happen.
That's what that felt like.
After months of feeling dismissed,
Carl tried a new tactic.
Maybe I'll just lean on one of my political connections
and see what I can find out.
So he contacted his state representative,
and he finally found someone
willing to listen.
The representative arranged for Carl
to meet with the district attorney's office
and an investigator.
And the investigator responded with,
document everything.
I'm like a good government bureaucrat.
Like, I can make a spreadsheet.
So I was like, hell yeah, I could do that.
So Carl built a timeline of the harassment.
He made a spreadsheet,
starting with the first message
his friend Paul received on Grindr back in May.
He said,
and detailed every instance of harassment since.
Do you ever worry about your reputation?
Just know that he's a cheater
and not to be trusted.
You broke me.
Andrew and Paul better watch out.
I would be worried about this weekend
if I were your friends.
That fucking asshole will pay.
The more Carl documented,
the guiltier Adam looked.
And with each row he added,
Carl explained why his ex-boyfriend Adam
had to be the culprit.
I had a comments,
column like explaining like
why this particular text message was important.
This has to be Adam
because it's about the dog we adopted together.
This has to be Adam
because this was about the time
we went to White Castle.
There was reference to a Valentine's Day card
that Adam sent to me from jail.
I've seen this spreadsheet
and it is no joke.
There are hundreds and hundreds of entries.
With this, he thought,
the cops had to see what he was dealing with.
It isn't just one spoof call.
That's being ignored.
It's 45 of them.
And there's a lot to show.
Like somebody is out there
that's off their rocker.
When it was all laid out in Carl's spreadsheet,
you could see all of the phone calls and texts
for what they were.
A pattern of abuse.
And it was getting worse.
More unhinged, more violent.
On November 21st, 2023,
Carl and Drew took the spreadsheet
to Kenosha sheriffs.
They sat down with Kenosha County Deputy
Mike,
Mike Roars.
He'd worked his fair share
of harassment complaints before.
Quite frankly, in my experience,
most of them are bullshit.
They don't have any substance
because if I just call you
and talk your ear off,
you might not appreciate it,
but that doesn't necessarily make it illegal.
The thing that really set Carl and Andrew apart
was Carl had an entire spreadsheet
that all kind of pieced this all together.
And that was something that I had never seen
because most people don't have that evidence.
The more that I could see,
the more that I kept scrolling through it,
the more the realization was
that this isn't bullshit,
that it wasn't just a civil matter.
It wasn't just him blowing something
out of proportion from an ex.
It was legitimate harassment,
if not stalking.
But the spreadsheet wasn't the only thing
Carl wanted to show the sheriffs that day.
We have the body cam footage from this meeting.
And in it, Carl explains
that his boyfriend, Drew,
recently received a voicemail
from Adam.
He left a voicemail
on phone saying no caller ID,
but he explicitly identified himself.
And I listened to the voicemail.
It's absolutely his voice.
This was significant.
After months of silence on the other line,
they finally had Adam
identifying himself on tape.
Hello, this is Adam.
I'm giving you a call.
I know who this is.
You know who this is.
In this voicemail,
Adam denied that he had anything to do
with the harassment.
In fact,
he made it sound like Carl and Drew
were harassing him
and his family.
I would greatly appreciate
if you would just stop
trying to reach out to me.
It's getting out of hand.
I want nothing to do with you.
I don't want to speak with you.
I have not tried
even reaching out to you once
since I left
and got out of prison.
Just leave me the hell alone.
Stop trying to contact my family.
I need to move on with my life
and so do you.
We need to talk.
Just let it go
and move on.
Okay?
I will speak to you later.
This message baffled Carl and Drew.
Neither of them had reached out
to Adam's family.
And suddenly,
Adam was playing the victim?
It made no sense.
Then, Carl got an idea.
He could use this voicemail
and compare it side by side
with that animal abuse call
the police received weeks earlier.
Here's that call again.
I'm just wondering
if I could have a police doctor, sir.
I was to my interest.
My boyfriend was
caught hitting my dog
and then it kind of just got into
like a little argument between us
and I wanted him to leave
but he wouldn't.
The police listened to both recordings
back to back
and compared the voices.
Here's Adam's voicemail
one more time.
I listened to it
and you could tell
these voices are very similar.
Like, it is Adam.
I'm like, this is it right here.
I got my smoking gun.
The cops thought so too.
Finally, they started to take Carl more seriously
because of the spreadsheet
and because of the voice matching.
They were convinced that these two calls
were from the same person.
But the cops, Carl and Drew,
they all got it wrong.
That voicemail was legit.
It was from the real Adam Mejia
reaching out to Carl
and Drew for the first time
in all of this
in hopes of finally putting a stop
to whatever was going on.
We need to just let it go
and move on.
Okay?
However, the call to the police
was from someone else entirely.
Someone who'd been hired
by Carl's best friend,
Paul Augustine.
And Carl was like,
that's Adam's voice.
So I was like,
oh, this is great.
I'll try.
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it was now mid-november 2023 and finally law enforcement was serious about investigating
carl's case but in many ways this help would be coming too little too late carl was already
unraveling i was going backwards it was like everything
that i had done over the last couple of years towards like really improving myself whether
it was my own health or my body image or my relationships living on my own in kenosha
all of those success stories in terms of my own personal growth it was like i was going backwards
on all of it and the weight was the biggest thing carl lost 150 pounds after his gastric bypass
dealing with the stress of all this he
almost half of it back and it was so easy for me to get down on myself for that reason
the harassment had been going on for nearly seven months starting on the day his new boyfriend drew
moved to kenosha carl had planned for this to be the start of a beautiful life together
but he wasn't able to be the partner he wanted to be i mean like i was not thinking about how
we could progress our relationship further or do cute boyfriend things
because like we were stuck in this mode of chaos carl felt like a failure he started drinking more
and his self-esteem was almost non-existent it's pointless to even try it because i'm just going to
be the fat drunk that i was destined to always be but he did make one last ditch effort to pull
himself out of that hole he thought maybe if he could get back to doing what he loved he could
regain a piece of himself so amidst all the chaos in his life carl decided to run for school board
again he loved his two previous terms he thought maybe public service would help ground him i was
seeking out ways that i could come back to my like myself and who i really am as a person you know an
individual who just genuinely cares about their community getting involved in the best way that
they know how it truly felt like a means of self-care for me
so in november 2023 carl began putting together his campaign but his stalker wasn't about to let
him bounce back so easily after he announced his campaign for school board carl got this text from
a random number good luck with school board i'd be hella sure of myself that nothing will go wrong
not like anyone has access to all your information that'd be horrible carl had nothing to hide and he
said so but the texter insisted he had receipts it's called knowing smart people who can find out
anything i ask i could have fucked you over so much worse but it's so much fun just watching
you stress on the daily carl did his best to ignore the messages then text messages were
starting to come in and it was extortion threats the culprit promised he had information that carl
would not want out there he'd keep it to himself if carl was willing to pay carl had no idea what
the texter could be referring to what he was trying to hold over him over the coming weeks
carl stalker started blowing up his phone demanding money should i show andrew the proof of the shit i
dug up or you can send me 200 bucks got venmo do you still have my venmo ready i can send you the
link one more time i don't care who pays me but i'll give it one hour i got screenshots babe 200
bucks hello carl assumed this was all a bluff just another scare tactic then on december 9th
carl and paul were hanging out in carl's apartment they were drinking trying to have a good time
when paul got a text in it were nude images of carl
so many other messages had been fake but these photos were real these were pictures i might have
taken like when i had broken up with adam and like i was going back on like apps somehow the stalker
had gotten access to some of carl's most private images how they would have ever gotten them i could
never explain but they got them and now they're being used against me along with the nude photos
were fake text conversations
texts that made it look like carl was actively cheating on his boyfriend drew
carl's anxiety was off the charts we're sitting there completely stunned and frozen and i'm drunk
but the adrenaline hits me and it's like i didn't even have a single sip of alcohol
taking intimate photos is part of dating in the digital era that in and of itself isn't a scandal
anymore but in this moment carl's stalker was threatening to use these photos to cause carl harm
both professionally and personally
carl refused to pay and that night to carl's horror drew received a text with the nude images
and screenshots it was very violating at first he was definitely questioning stuff but eventually
like he just did not take it seriously because in one of these doctored conversations the other
person responded with another private photo and it was literally a picture of him and i was like
that's a picture of a porn star i wish i was getting guys like that but like this wasn't the
reality and drew and i both had a laugh about that like i wish but no it was a brief moment
of lightness in an otherwise scary situation drew said he didn't believe anything the stalker said
anyway but after that carl could tell his boyfriend started
to put walls up. And now, of course, there was a looming threat. Who else would get these photos?
Were you concerned that these photos would be released?
To anybody else? Oh, God, yeah. I was very concerned about that.
The school board elections were coming up. When Carl was elected the first time,
he was the first openly queer person on the Kenosha school board. He knew that if these
images came out, he'd be judged differently. So with these images circulating, Carl,
dropped out of the race. The last thing I needed was for this
to go to somebody else out in the community. Running for the school board wasn't just
another campaign. It was a chance to return to something he'd loved, going back to when
he was a teenager. Now, that chance was gone, all because his stalker was blackmailing him.
His sister, Rebecca, watched it all change Carl. I saw somebody who was generally very happy,
kind of devolve into somebody who was very reserved, battered, untrusting.
His mom, Sue, noticed physical signs, too.
When he's stressed, he's got a spot right here in his forehead, and then the dark circles around
his eyes that you can tell. He was very short-tempered during that time. Just, you know,
things that normally is easygoing, it wasn't easygoing anymore.
The only thing that I could possibly do was to get a burner phone,
with 1990s text messaging capabilities, and phone calling capabilities.
And I think that was the first time that the emotions really hit me in that situation.
I sat there at the kitchen table, and I broke down and cried my eyes out.
And I think it was very difficult for Drew, and very difficult for my mom as well, because
this was a thing that nobody had answers about.
Everybody,
was there to help, and everybody was there to support. But there was nothing that any of us
could do. It was like I was continually screaming into the wind. But no matter what false reality
people were constructing around me and Drew, I had to do these ridiculous things to protect myself.
And it sucked. It really sucked.
Paul had turned Carl's life upside down. Seeing Carl in such pain,
he might think he'd stop. But he wasn't finished. He only took this as a sign to push further.
On January 5th, 2024, Kenosha's non-emergency dispatch received a call.
Hello. My name is Carl Bryan. I'm calling in from Kenosha. I'm from 16th place.
And my boyfriend, Andrew Condon, has a knife.
Someone was pretending to be Carl. The caller said that his boyfriend, Drew,
had a knife and had locked himself in.
In the bathroom. As dispatch communicated with each other about what to do,
they acknowledged that something was off about the call.
Yet, they had to assume this was a real emergency. Deputy Roars explains.
We can't just not do anything because if, God forbid, something does happen,
then that's obviously going to not only look bad, but also be very bad.
So dispatch,
sent Kenosha sheriffs to the house right away.
Deputy Roars heard the call come over the police radio.
Multiple officers were sent, with weapons at the ready.
Going to those calls, your adrenaline's pumping because you don't know what's going to happen.
All the other squads were coming to this house thinking that it was a barricaded subject or
somebody was going to get killed. Drew and I had just gotten to bed and we'd gotten to pounding at
the door. And I
answered right away. And I saw multiple squad cars with the lights on. And the officer that
I had spoken to was like, someone called in a weapons call. And I'm like, what are you talking
about? They could clearly see when they went into the bathroom, there was no knife. There was no
blood. There was no Drew. They asked Drew to come out. He was still in his underwear. It was so
violating. And the whole situation,
was incredibly dangerous. False reporting of emergencies is known as swatting,
as in calling a SWAT team. And it's considered a serious crime. People can and have died from
calls like these. One miscommunication, one mistake could have resulted in somebody getting
shot and killed. When he heard the call for service come over the radio, he rushed to alert his team. He managed to slow things down before anyone got hurt.
If I wasn't there and didn't have that knowledge, then it would have been those six people going and having to almost kick down the door.
The night ended and everyone was physically okay. But the ordeal shook Carl to his core.
To me, it was like, what is even real life at this point? It was just an assault on my grasp on reality. And I'm here trying to manage some semblance of normalcy, but I can barely hold it together myself. I was not suicidal. But I will say, it literally is going to take for me to die for this to end, it feels like. It was like the only way this is ever going to stop is somebody dead.
To me, it was like the only way this is ever going to stop is somebody dead.
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You're at the store. Put it on just about anything. Then you'll understand. You'll love its rich, bold flavor. Kewpie, the original Japanese mayonnaise. That's Kewpie, the original Japanese mayonnaise.
Do we all need to be detoxing ourselves?
Before I go asking, how can I detox? I have to look inward. Okay, what am I doing? Can I identify at least three ways that my body detoxes and ways to support that? I promise if my message was more dramatic like that, I would have millions of followers and make more videos.
I would have millions of followers and make millions of dollars. But I cannot sleep at night trying to sell someone something that their body already does naturally.
We're living in a crazy world now. I think it's a lot of people fear a lack of control. And as a result of this, this is the way of them trying to make sense of the world and try to take control over their own bodies. So by actively doing something, I'm going to detoxify things. Therefore, I'm going to feel better, I think is absolutely one of the reasons that detoxifying has become so popular.
Listen to the full episode of Health vs. Hype with the American Medical Association on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
clue that the
the call was fake. Here's Deputy Roars again. Most people, when they need police, they call
911. And if you call non-emergency for an emergency, it's most likely made up. That's
because 911 screens for spoof calls. And because when they're using spoof numbers, they aren't able
to dial 911. It seemed like the harasser knew this, because instead of calling 911 to report
these fake emergencies, they called non-emergency dispatch. Over the next few days, Kenosha County
Sheriff's non-emergency dispatch line received over 30 fake calls. All of them appeared to come
from Carl and members of his family. This was draining law enforcement resources, and Deputy
Roars was fed up. I knew how upsetting and frustrating it was for Carl and Andrew, who were
having to live with this. I mean, I go,
home at the end of the night, and I can turn off my phone, and I don't have to deal with it.
This was their lives. The sheriff's office put more resources on the case.
That's when a detective was brought on to partner with Deputy Roars. My name is Allison George,
and I'm a detective with the Kenosha County Sheriff's Office. I first started working on
this case on January of 2024. Detective George had special training in internet crimes like spoofing.
So,
she started reading through the case file.
Based on the extent of the spoofing and the places that were being spoofed called,
such as the dispatch center, it told me that this perpetrator was going to great lengths
to conceal their identity, and that they were likely on a smart device utilizing all these
different applications. Immediately, she knew what law enforcement needed to do to crack this case.
Subpoena the spoofing companies. You see, spoofing apps aren't a completely
foolproof way to hide a caller's identity. In fact, the software companies that produce these apps
cooperate with police investigations all the time.
If law enforcement are reaching out, they'll say, yep, send me a subpoena,
and we will get you the information of who's using our application to place those calls.
So, Detective George sent out several subpoenas to the spoofing companies.
The only problem was, those records could take weeks to come back, or in some cases, even longer.
In the meantime, George returned the case file, and she was stunned to see the spreadsheet Carl
made, logging every harassing call and text. As she combed through it, she came to the same
conclusion as Carl. His ex-boyfriend, Adam Mejia, was likely their guy.
All that information that we had constituted probable cause to believe that Adam Mejia was
actually the perpetrator of this. Probable cause. Maybe there wasn't enough evidence
to arrest Adam just yet. But all signs pointed towards him. And that allowed Detective George
to justify other methods of investigation.
So, in coordination with the district attorney's office, a search warrant was authored. It was
approved by a judge. And we went up to the city that Mr. Mejia lives in and met with Mr. Mejia
and executed that search warrant. Kenosha sheriffs decided to divide and conquer. One group of
investigators searched Adam's partner's house, where Adam was living. At the same time, Detective
George and Deputy Roars tracked down Adam. And he wasn't hard to find. They showed up at his
regularly scheduled probation meeting. Remember, Adam was still on probation for his DUI. Detectives
took him to a local police station for questioning.
This footage is from Adam's interrogation. In the video, Adam takes off his winter jacket and sits
down across from the sheriffs. Before this meeting, authorities thought they understood the kind of
person they'd be questioning. Judging by the text they'd seen, this perpetrator was a vindictive,
manipulative guy. A jealous ex who'd stop at nothing to destroy Carl's life. But the man they
met that day was a man who was a man of his word. He was a man of his word. In January 2024, was none of those things.
I don't know who. I don't know. Why would somebody be trying to send you to jail? I do not know.
Detective George decided to try a little harder to see if Adam would confess to it. At one point,
she lied to Adam, saying they already had proof that the spoof calls came from him.
This is a common tactic used in police interrogations,
to see if the suspect will crack once they think they've been caught.
Basically, starting from the beginning, right? Because we have these phone calls that came in
from dispatch. We have the numbers that they came from, which we know are fake. And so we track them
backwards. Okay. Which that's what I actually said to begin with, that that's what should be done.
Right. The problem is it's pointing in your direction.
How?
That's what I'd like you to explain to me.
I seriously do not know how. I'm like 100% have no clue how that could happen.
Because I have not contacted anyone.
Adam stuck to his story. He was innocent. But there was still so much evidence that
seemed to confirm it was him.
Somebody has been calling the dispatch centers, essentially swatting.
Yeah.
And if it comes back to your IP address, I mean, that's not going to, I mean,
that's going to be definitive that it was you.
It's not going to.
So it's not going to come back?
No.
Did you know that the voice changer didn't work that time that you called our dispatch?
What are you talking about?
When we compare that to the phone call to our dispatch center, it's the same voice.
It's not the same voice. I did not call them.
Detective George played the animal abuse call for Adam.
It's a feminine gay guy, but it's not me. I'm like, I'm telling you, I did not call them.
Seriously, I have not called.
I'm cutting the bullshit here.
No, I am too. I have not called.
This was one of the only moments in the interrogation where Adam seemed on edge.
Detective George saw the shift in his body.
I promise you.
Because this is ridiculous. How are you going to accuse me of doing something that I didn't do?
I have not called.
I'm not accusing you of anything. I'm confronting you with the facts.
And I'm being honest. I have not called. And this has been going on for too long.
Adam was upset. But through it all, he was cooperative.
He gave the cops as much information as he knew.
He even willingly handed over his phone.
About a half hour into the interview, Deputy Roars and Detective George took a pause.
They stepped outside and looked at each other. They were baffled.
As a cop, you generally get very good at reading people and knowing what's bullshit and what's the truth.
And Adam's completely blindsided.
He truly didn't seem like he knew anything. And I kind of felt bad for him.
Adam was forthcoming. The sheriffs were thrown off.
Maybe there was more to the story after all.
Meanwhile, there were still other cops at Adam's home, executing the search warrant.
Detective Morrow led the investigation.
A couple of us went to the house and looked at it.
Looked like your normal everyday house, kind of like this that we're in right now, right?
They walked through the home gathering things that might be helpful.
A laptop, an SD card, some paper files.
And then. Look around the whole thing.
And finally find the Cubs hat.
And right then, it's kind of like a light bulb.
Like, oh shit, this is our guy.
You might remember the Cubs hat from the last episode.
When Adam moved out, he took a Cubs hat Carl cherished.
This hat was often mentioned in messages to Carl and Paul.
How badly does Carl want this hat back?
I'll mail the hat if you want, since you probably don't want to see me ever again.
I wanted to give him the hat back, but I get blocked every time.
It might.
It might seem like an insignificant detail, but Carl was sure.
Only he and Adam knew about the hat.
So, to detectives at the scene, this hat was the missing piece.
It was verification of Carl's story.
Strong circumstantial evidence that Adam Mejia was behind the harassment.
Deputy Roars and Detective George were still on their break,
standing outside the interview room when they got the news.
Detective George had asked Adam about the hat.
Early on in the interview.
And then later on, towards the end,
communicating with the officers who were executing the search warrant at his home,
well, they found that hat there.
It was a yellow one.
I remember what hat now you're talking about.
You said yellow one, and I saw yellow and brown.
I have not worn it.
it at all since I've been here. And you have had it? No, because it was downstairs in the basement,
I think. Adam insisted the hat was buried in storage. He just forgot he had it. But to
Detective George, it felt like she'd caught Adam in a lie. There was mounting evidence,
and Detective George had to make a decision. We have body camera footage of what happened next.
I am, first of all, incredibly confused about what is all going on.
Oh, my. We are going to be taking you into custody. What? For one count of stalking.
If you didn't catch that, let me repeat it. Adam was being arrested on one count of felony stalking.
He was going to jail. On paper, it all made sense. But detectives had the wrong guy.
You will have a court appearance. Probably
maybe tomorrow at 1. I can tell you that I'm going to be digging a lot deeper into this.
And if there is someone else who is causing issues, I will find out.
As of right now, like we told you, everything is pointing towards you. I understand if it's not you,
then you honestly have nothing to worry about. Nothing to worry about, except that he was being
taken to jail for a crime he didn't commit. We have been completely chill and cooperative.
We are going to be as chill and cooperative with you as can. We are going to take you into custody.
We have to take you to the Congressional County Jail. We will be booked and be a judge.
How long am I going to be incarcerated for? That I don't know.
So I don't know when I'm getting out.
And that is not, once again, our. Deputy Roars searched Adam's pockets to make sure he had nothing on him.
The whole time, Adam kept his wits about him.
You've been cool with us. So we're. We're going to let you make your phone call using one of our phones before you get done.
It's all because of the stalking.
Yeah.
Yeah. We're going to take you to the restroom, then we'll walk up to the car.
I'll come back and grab your stuff.
Based on his behavior, the authorities allowed Adam to call his mother from the police car.
Right now, I'm okay. I'll call you as soon as I can.
Okay.
When I find out more information, and I just pray that I'm going to be okay.
It's just not cool.
I love you.
I love you.
So?
That's all right.
I didn't do anything. I love you.
Yeah, I love you too.
Try not to get too worked up about this.
Oh, I'm already worked up.
I'm already worked up. I just can't believe it. I just cannot believe it.
Just pray. Please, just pray.
Before the day could end, there was one last thing Deputy Roars needed to do.
Deliver the news to Carl.
Brilliant.
Take a chill.
Take a chill.
Take a tact on.
Yeah.
When he got to Carl's house late that night, he found Carl hanging out with a friend.
Paul Augustine just so happened to be there.
He's actually a really friendly guy.
Say hi.
Say hi.
How have you been?
Good. How are you?
Good.
So?
I'm going to get you out of the bedroom. He's just going to be alone.
Sorry.
No, it's okay.
So, he got arrested today.
Oh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That gasp came from Paul, the actual perpetrator.
In the moment, his reaction made sense.
After all, he'd been a target too.
He and Carl had been in this together from day one.
So, as of right now, we're still going through his phones and everything.
The hard part isn't over.
He's basically, he's just been put in, he's been arrested for stalking.
Okay.
You personally weren't, I mean, because you're, it's not like.
No.
I personally had to drive up there to do it.
Oh, you seriously did?
Oh, oh my God.
I've been there all day.
So.
Oh my God.
I don't know, you probably can't answer, but I'm still going to ask anyways.
If you can't, it's fine.
But how did he even react?
He was surprisingly calm.
I will, I will give him that.
There was only one person in the room who knew the truth and he was asking all the questions.
Paul could barely contain his glee.
Are you excited?
Yeah, I can actually stay.
You know, I haven't stayed here in two weeks.
I might actually stay here tonight.
All Carl wanted was a night of peace.
Now, he was getting it.
And his best friend, Paul, was there to enjoy it with him.
We call his house camp harassment.
We do.
We do.
But now it's camp celebration.
On the next episode of Betrayal, Carl's ex-boyfriend, the man he used to be friends with, is going
to find out what's going on with his ex-girlfriend.
We're going to find out what's going on with his ex-boyfriend.
We're going to find out what's going on with his ex-girlfriend.
On the next episode of Betrayal, Carl's ex-boyfriend, the man everyone believed was responsible,
the man who went to jail for a crime he didn't commit, Adam tells his side of the story.
During the whole case, my voice was never heard.
Carl's been through hell and back.
Andrew's been through hell and back.
But they all told their story.
They were all able to report it to police.
But with me, how do you report it to police when police are the ones telling you, "You're
doing this"?
If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team, or want to tell us your Betrayal story,
email us at
[email protected].
That is Betrayal, P-O-D, at gmail.com.
Or follow us on Instagram, @BetrayalPod, or me, @ItsAndreaGunning.
To access our newsletter and additional content, and to connect with the Betrayal community,
join our Substack at Betrayal.Substack.com.
We're grateful for your support.
One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts.
And don't forget to rate and review.
Five-star reviews go a long way.
A big thank you to all of our listeners.
Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in
partnership with iHeart Podcasts.
The show was executive produced by Nancy Glass, hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunnick,
written and produced by Carrie Hartman and Caitlin Golden.
Our story editor is Monique Laborde, also produced by Ben Fetterman.
Our production manager is Chris Heller.
Our production manager is Kristen Mulcahy.
Our associate producer is Leah Jablo.
Additional support by Curry Richman and Olivia Hewitt.
Our iHeart team is Allie Perry and Jessica Krynczak.
Audio editing and voice acting by Tanner Robbins.
Mixing and mastering by Matt Dalvecchio.
And special thanks to Carl Bryan, Adam Mejia, Matt Rolsey, and their communities.
Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Baines.
Music library provided by MIB Music.
And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app.
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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