# Felons you have known **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 15, 2013, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362 "2013-12-15T07:20:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/21 "2013-12-15T15:06:50Z")
I think a childhood friend of mine was under Dr. **Qadcop** ’s care for a while after a series of unfortunate choices. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/22 "2013-12-15T15:12:40Z")
> [@Blackberry](#): > > Did the buddy not go on and get another third strike then? Nope. He probably had a few parking/speeding tickets, and he sure loved his mushrooms. ETA: ohhhhh. You’re talking about my friend’s buddy. I don’t know. He disappeared (moved away). Some speculated he was too embarrassed to stick around others assumed differently, but I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/23 "2013-12-15T15:38:38Z")
My cousin has been in jail two or three times, all on drug charges. Not pot, more serious stuff, especially selling and trafficking. A good friend from high school had sex with a teenager in his 20s and went to jail for a couple of years. After that he started selling pot and things like that, violated his parole and went back to jail. I thought he was supposed to be out by now, but I haven’t heard from him in a couple of years. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/24 "2013-12-15T15:44:22Z")
Hmm… back when I worked at a clinic I met several thousand, both convicted and uncaught. Mostly drugs but plenty of theft, assault, and a few murders. Not friends, but clientele at work. In my personal life, that is, actual friends, 2 or 3 I’ve known for sure were convicted felons but all in the distant past, they were now model citizens. Really. They made mistakes, did their time, then decided they weren’t doing _that_ again. Probably know more but I don’t know they’re felons. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/25 "2013-12-15T15:45:28Z")
Too numerous to count. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/26 "2013-12-15T15:46:07Z")
I’m good friends with a guy that did time in the 90’s for robbing dozens of banks over a 3-4 year period. I didn’t meet him until after he got out but he has a good sense of humor about it and has gotten his life back on track. I think he did about 5-6 years at a federal prison. He turned himself in and plead guilty, so his sentence was lighter than it could have been. I think he also has to pay back $150k or so, but I have no idea how that’s going. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/27 "2013-12-15T15:49:28Z")
Two, both of whom were members of my local fantasy football league. One for dealing coke, the other nabbed in a sting while utilizing our technological advances by masturbating while skype-chatting with young ladies. “She told me she was 18!” ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/28 "2013-12-15T16:16:37Z")
For a while mrAru’s mom lived across the street from Sonny Barger’s second in command, and Sonny Barger had been a fairly frequent visitor along with other Hells Angels, they got invited to picnics and parties over there because his step father was friends with the guy. Not sure if his step father was a felon or not though his honorary Uncle Charlie did 15 years in some prison in Florida. Counting Uncle Charlie, and some people I have worked with, and having lived across the street from a house holding a bunch of Pagans and been on good terms with them I probably knew a dozen or so felons. I know at least one of the dishwashers had a probation officer, he mentioned him occasionally. I rarely bothered asking if anybody had a police file, I really didn’t want to know that much about my co-workers. If they looked skeevy I just avoided being in a small confined space with them alone. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/29 "2013-12-15T17:01:16Z")
A former employer / kinda sorta friend of my boyfriend served many years in prison for drug dealing. An ex-boyfriend - \* ex-fiancé \*actually- is sitting in jail right now for multiple counts of first degree murder and attempted murder. Anyone in the Tampa Bay area might recall the Thanksgiving Day home invasion from a few years ago that was committed by the ice cream truck driver who was out for revenge for being robbed and actually killed the wrong guys. Just to be clear, I hadn’t been involved with him for many years by the time he committed his crimes (though he did broker the deal for my current car at the auto auction. I sometimes wonder if it’s haunted in some way.) ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/30 "2013-12-15T17:04:15Z")
Eliminating drug possession from the running… One guy I used to know was apparently dead set on going to prison, he alienated another guy we knew who tried to help him, then committed some basically senseless crimes(including one he was lucky to not get charged as a hate crime for). Then some more and more, finally while a fugitive he got drunk and made a scene and got arrested. Last I heard he is now a born again christian. It was clear to me he was basically dealing with mental issues and purposely getting arrested for whatever reason. He was in the local news in TX but I don’t care to identify him by name. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/31 "2013-12-15T17:17:21Z")
They guy who grew up in the house next door, who I played with as a child, spent six years in jail for second degree murder. When he was in his early twenties, he and a bunch of his friends had a big fight with another guy from the neighborhood and some of his friends. The other guy was so badly beaten he died, and my neighbor took the rap. I think he was the only one who went to jail. He wasn’t a bad guy, he just got carried away in a fight. After he got out he reformed, settled down, and got married. He came over to our house once to visit. I think he may be a paralegal now. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/32 "2013-12-15T17:27:57Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I don’t know exactly. Twenty thousand or more I suppose. > > I worked in a prison for three decades. Maybe I’m skewing the average. > [@casdave](#): > > I’m pretty much in the same position as \*\*Little Nemo \*\* > > There are a small number who I know by reputation around and about where I used to live, but they don’t know me. > [@Loach](#): > > I am too. Although not quite as much as you. > [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Too numerous to count. 😉 We just need SSG Schwartz and we can form a club. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/33 "2013-12-15T17:49:08Z")
Do plea bargins to lesser charges count? Two, possibly three. One for money-laundering, no time served. I don’t know if he pled to lesser or got QWAFed or a _nolo_ and … probation? (I am weak on the finer points of conviction and oversight.) One for stealing a car. Three years (I think) in prison. Doesn’t seem fair, does it? Probably a few others, friends I’ve lost track of over the years. I used to see old friends frequently at the court house. After the first very awkward silence, I stopped asking how they were doing. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/34 "2013-12-15T17:51:56Z")
[George Calleia.](http://ind.gmnews.com/news/2005-10-26/Front_page/003.html) The funny thing is, I came _this close_ to never meeting him. I work from home, and am not required to go into my firm’s office very often. I met him on one of those rare office visits about a month after he was hired, and the murder and arrest happened less than a week later. He was convicted, the conviction was reversed on appeal, and the reversal was reversed and the conviction re-instated by the NJ State Supreme Court. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/35 "2013-12-15T17:52:16Z")
My stepfather. When i was 7 years old (1976), our family moved from our outer suburban Sydney house to the subtropical rainforest of northern New South Wales, in Australia (near Mullumbimby, for those who know the region). We lived on a 160-acre farm up in the mountains, and my sister and i attended a great little one-room school with 20 other kids. It turns out that the reason for the move was that the climate and the rainforest cover constituted a perfect environment for growing large amounts of marijuana. One day, after we’d been there for about 6 months, four or five police cars containing about 15 cops descended on the place, put my parents in handcuffs, and spent the rest of the day going through every single nook and cranny of the house, and turning everything upside down. My stepfather and a couple of his friends apparently had a huge weed crop in the upper sections of the property, well behind the house. My mother had never even been up there, because she was worried about snakes. After the two of them (and my stepfather’s friends) were carted off, my sister and i were taken to the house of our local school teacher, where we stayed for a few days until my mother was let out on bail. They dropped all charges against her soon after. It was apparently one of the biggest weed busts in the region, and made the news and the newspapers. My stepfather was the leader of the operation, and he was sentenced to 8 years. He spent two and a half years in Long Bay, a correctional center in Sydney, before being paroled. He was in the maximum security prison for the first few months, then in the medium security prison, and then the minimum security area for the last months of his stay. We lived out in the western suburbs of Sydney, and my mother and my sister and i would make the trek in to the prison to see him every Saturday. The story has a couple of interesting epilogues. My mother and stepfather divorced in 1984, about 4 years after he got out of prison. She cut off pretty much all contact with him, but i saw him quite regularly, especially after i finished high school and started university in Sydney in 1987. Then, in late 1987 or early 1988, he suddenly dropped off the map, and i couldn’t get in touch with him. A few weeks later, police from the Drug Squad came to ask me when i had last seen him, and it turned out that they suspected him of running another large weed-growing operation, this time out near Coonabarabran in central-western New South Wales. I told the cops the truth—that i had no idea where he was— and i never saw him again, and still have no idea where he went or what happened to him. My mother, in the meantime, had gone back to work, and had been hired as a civilian administrative worker in the NSW Police Department, in Penrith, on the outskirts of Sydney. One day she was sitting at work, and the cop who had been in charge of the raid on our farm about 12 years earlier walked into her office. She said that it was a rather awkward reunion. She ended up marrying a cop who worked in the station. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/36 "2013-12-15T18:21:57Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I don’t know exactly. Twenty thousand or more I suppose. > > I worked in a prison for three decades. Maybe I’m skewing the average. You’ve got me by several orders of magnitude. I know several dozen professionally, and a handful personally. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/37 "2013-12-15T18:33:41Z")
A guy I dated when we were in our late 20s had been convicted of a felony when he was in his early 20s, or maybe 19. He was involved in some money counterfeiting thing. Him being a felon did have quite an impact on the rest of his life. Be careful with your youthful shenanegins! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/38 "2013-12-15T18:53:05Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > An ex-boyfriend - \* ex-fiancé \*actually- is sitting in jail right now for multiple counts of first degree murder and attempted murder. Anyone in the Tampa Bay area might recall the Thanksgiving Day home invasion from a few years ago that was committed by the ice cream truck driver who was out for revenge for being robbed and actually killed the wrong guys. > > Just to be clear, I hadn’t been involved with him for many years by the time he committed his crimes (though he did broker the deal for my current car at the auto auction. I sometimes wonder if it’s haunted in some way.) Nice Username/post combo. 🙂 All the felons I know are felons because of DUI convictions. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/39 "2013-12-15T18:59:08Z")
DUIs aren’t normally felonies. If we’re counting first DUIs then my number was quite a bit too low. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/40 "2013-12-15T19:04:04Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I don’t know exactly. Twenty thousand or more I suppose. > > I worked in a prison for three decades. Maybe I’m skewing the average. So am I. Nowhere near twenty thousand, but definitely hundreds and hundreds. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362.md?page=3)