The Case

This is one of the famous photos that Zaremba, the cop that accused me, took of his car on May 15th, 2002. I was held for supposedly smashing the front, the back, the sides, and the glass of his car. Here he is indicating damage done when I supposedly threw my bike at his car several times.

People always asked me why I didn’t just pay the cop. Well, I didn’t for a couple of really good reasons. Firstly, I didn’t do it. Secondly, I did not have such money that I could simply give it away to the first corrupt cop I found. Thirdly, if I did, my proposed business in Belarus would be at an end. And lastly, agreeing to pay him also meant agreeing that I had committed a ridiculous, arbitrary and violent act which would forever ruin my reputation and name.

It just wasn’t worth it.

So, I told them to stick it and even though the only real case was against the cop, they went ahead and prosecuted me. During the time of the prosecution ad trial, they held my passport rather than allowing me to post bail. During the five month discovery period I was not allowed contact with a lawyer or to know anything about the case they supposedly had against me. The trial, in which my accuser presented no evidence or actual witnesses, was only allowed one day a month to be heard. It was only after eleven months in Poland that I was given my passport back and allowed to leave.

After Poland >>