The Deep Focus Show

[00:03] They're doing human trafficking in the place, they're doing prostitution, they're doing drugs, you know. And they deal with 30 cops. Right? So, think about it. We're in the confines of the precinct. If they wanted to, they could just take me to the back, shoot me, leave, erase the footage, say the camera's not working. The detective, which is one of the dirty cops that we're investigating, will catch the case. He'll come and investigate, and he'll be like, "Oh, yeah. Steven Lee was dirty, and he got shot by gangsters while getting paid off by

[00:34] dirty gangsters and stuff." Easy. Hi everybody. I'm John Kiriakou, and welcome back to another episode of Deep Focus. First, I want to ask your forgiveness. I just got off a plane. I'm not shaven. My hair is all funky and crazy. So, I don't normally look like a bum. Please accept my apologies. Second, there are a lot of things in life that I'm proud of. We all have things in life that we're proud of. We're all proud of our children, for example. But, I'm most

[01:05] proud, really, of being a whistleblower. The life of a whistleblower is hard. What most Americans don't understand is that there's actually a legal definition of whistleblowing. It's bringing to light any evidence of waste, fraud, abuse, illegality, or threats to the public health or public safety. You can blow the whistle on pretty much anything at any level of government. Well, law enforcement is someplace where we really need whistleblowers. We really need the honest people to rise up to the

[01:37] top. The NYPD, the New York Police Department, is arguably the largest police department in the world. It's actually bigger than most countries' militaries. And it has problems, like any big bureaucracy. Because it has problems, it needs whistleblowers. And today, we have one of the most important NYPD whistleblowers to come out of that organization, at least since Frank Serpico. Steven Lee blew the whistle and paid for

[02:09] it not just with his career, but also with his freedom. I want him to tell his story, and I want him to tell us what it was like to be on the receiving end of the full force of the New York Police Department. Steven, welcome to the show. Glad you're with us. Hi. How you doing, John? Thank you for having me. Thanks for doing this. I think this is important. You got some uh press, and actually, it was largely positive press in the New York City area, but not a lot of national press. So, for our

[02:40] viewers who don't know who you are or what your story is, can you tell us about your whistleblowing? Sure. Um my name is Steven Lee. I'm a former NYPD sergeant. Uh 18 years on the force. Um So, what happened was in 2013, when I got promoted to the rank of sergeant, I uh got transferred to Flushing, Queens, which is the 109 Precinct. And I was there as um conditions {slash}

[03:11] crime sergeant. Uh for people that don't know, it's people that wear the plain clothes. They go out, they address the precinct conditions, like, you know, stolen rims and tires, or stolen GLAs, um kids hanging out on the corner. Uh we also do the bar checks. So, that's the most important part, the bar checks. Uh liquor licensing and stuff like that. And when we go into the karaoke, we have things called we call them KTVs, right?

[03:42] So, they're like they're karaokes for um the non-Asians. KTV means karaoke television. I don't know why they call it KTV. I guess cuz they couldn't pronounce karaoke, right? So, they call it KTV. Um but in the environment for KTVs, it's not like Hollywood, like, you know, like standing on a stage and singing. It's more of um you get private rooms. Uh you get bottle service. You have a mommy son. A mommy son is

[04:12] like a female pimp, right? She brings She like It's kind of like uh that movie Rush Hour, right? With Jackie Chan and Chris Rock. Where you get the girls lined up, they come in, and then you know, you pick a girl that you like, and they sit with you, they drink with you, they show karaoke, and if you, you know, if they like you, you get to take them home and do extra stuff with them, and you pay them, of course, for it, right? Um We do these bar checks there and stuff

[04:43] like that. And when we do the bar checks, at first, when I'm doing the inspections and stuff, they're saying, "Oh, you know, they don't pay us, so it's kind of like not illegal, like we cuz I'm thinking straight off the head, prostitution, right?" >> Sure. But, the way they they find a way around it is like, "Oh, it's a tip that they give us, right? It's like we don't ask them for the money, quote unquote." But, they do, right? We don't ask them for the money, quote unquote, but they give us a

[05:13] tip if they like our service. And of course, you know, they're going to be given a tip, right? Otherwise, the girl's not going to give any service. Whatever the case is, um the bar checks were important because that's that was the bread and butter, right? Um the cops were getting paid off by the karaokes. So, how my undercover work started was we had a new commanding officer come in. And new commanding officer was brought in by the police union, the police PBA. And the reason why the PBA brought in

[05:45] this particular boss was because the morale of the precinct was very low. Um it happens a lot where the white shirts, we call them, uh which is lieutenants and above, they wear white shirts. That's why we call them white shirts. Um they're also considered executives in the NYPD. And they were the ones that were running the precinct. So, usually, um it's the cops that run the precinct, right? Because if the cops shut down,

[06:17] then you get no more activity, right? You get no more arrests, you get no more enforcement. Um we call it a slow down. I don't know if they still do those things, but we call it slow down. So, it's like whenever a boss um you know, retaliates against a cop or or does something bad to a cop, the union will call for a slow down. So, the cops will stop doing activity, they'll respond to 911 calls slower, and stuff like that. But, yeah. And that puts that puts lives at

[06:47] risk. Yes, it put lives at risk, but it's mostly because of the quota system, right? So, the bosses want their quotas. Um they want their numbers. But, back on track. So, the reason why my my work started was um we had this new commanding officer. He was cleaning house, and a lot of lieutenants left, transferred out. And then, my direct supervisor, he refused to transfer out. And at that

[07:17] time, I didn't know why. I was like, "Why don't you just leave, you know, go someplace else?" Um but, we were going to the pizza shop. We're driving I'm driving him to the pizza shop, and we're just having conversation. He's venting. He's like, "Oh, this guy, we got to get rid of him, blah blah blah." And I'm like, "Okay, why don't you just make a phone call, right?" Cuz there's a lot of nepotism in NYPD, right? It basically runs the department. It's all about who you know, it's not about what skills you have or whatever, right? So, I'm like, "Why don't you call your you know, call your hook, right?"

[07:49] And he's like, "Oh, no, I can't that don't work. This guy's well-liked up top, too. So, we're going to have to try something else." And I'm like, "Try something else? Like, what do you mean?" He's like, "Steve, you do these uh checks in these karaokes and stuff, right? Like, you know the girls that work there, right?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I mean, I don't know them, but you know, I'm familiar with them, right?" And they're like, he's like, "Yeah, so can maybe you get one of the girls to say that, you know, he raped her,

[08:19] right?" And I'm like, "Wait, you want to put fake rape charges on this guy?" And he's like, "Yeah." So, I'm like, "All right, sure, sure." So, I brush it off. So, you know, I'm not going to tell him no, because you know, that's my direct supervisor. So, I I told him, "Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, whatever." And I just avoided him for like a week straight. But, that whole week, he just kept on bringing it up. "Hey, Steve, you found a girl yet? Hey, Steve, you found a girl yet?" And I'm like, "No, no, no, no. Uh I got to go.

[08:49] I got a 911 call. I got to go to react to a call. I got this thing I got to do, right?" And now, I avoid him. So, after a week, I decided to knock on my commanding officer's door. Um I walk in, I go, "Sir, you know, I need to talk to you. Uh can we have a man-to-man conversation, you know, off the books?" And there's no such thing as off-the-record conversations when you're talking to a supervisor in any department, right? So, I don't I don't want anybody to think that

[09:20] you could have an off-the-record conversation. There's just there's no off-the-record conversations. But, I tried to speak to him man-to-man, like a locker room kind of talk. And >> [clears throat] >> he's like, "Yeah, sure. Sit down. What's up?" I go, "Listen, somebody's trying to jam you up, right?" I didn't want to give him details at the time, you know, I didn't want to get involved, cuz this was my dream precinct. I went from a 2-hour commute to a 5-minute commute, right? And from a neighborhood that was high crime to my ethnicity

[09:52] neighborhood, where, you know, I grew up in and, you know, like I I in and stuff like that, where it was it was it felt good to get back to my own community, right? To help my own community. And that was kind of like my dream, right? To uh becoming a police officer, helping my own people out, right? Um but he's like, "Sure, you know, what is it so I can protect myself?" I go, "Look, somebody's trying to put fake rape charges on you." He goes, "Oh, okay, I think I have an idea who it is. If I say his name, you

[10:23] know, just give me a nod or something." And he says, "Bobby." And I go, "Yes." Cuz his name is Robert Song, right? Lieutenant Robert Song, and um they call him Bobby. So, I'm like, "Yeah." He's like, "All right, thanks." Week later, he calls me back into his office, and he goes, "Listen, I I had to drop a log to Internal Affairs." And I'm like, "Oh, shit." I thought it was a off-comers, you know, off-the-record conversation. He's like, "No, I had to drop a log to protect myself. I know you didn't want to get

[10:53] involved, but they're asking if you could go on the cover and get it on recording." >> [snorts] >> And I go, "Well, do I have a choice?" He goes, "Well, you don't really tell Internal Affairs no, right? Because then you become the target." All right. So, I go, "All right, I'm being volun-told." So, there's a thing that we say in the NYPD where it's like, you know, you're technically volunteering, but you're actually being told to do it, right? So, I'm like, "Listen, what do I do?"

[11:25] All right, on your day off, on your audio, regular day off, on your audio, they'll come to your house, and, you know, they'll interview you, and they'll get the get the story, and you just tell them what what happened. Sure. Day off, they interview me. Two people, one a sergeant, one a lieutenant. Um they come and interview me. They leave. Next day, they come interview me again. This time they brought their their commanding officer talking to them.

[11:55] They set me up. Fine, we'll give you devices, and, you know, you go and get this on recording. So, I get the devices, I'm going on recording. Uh I bump This we call a bump. All right, when you when you try to engage with a target, we call it a bump. So, We do it the CIA as well. Oh, yeah, it's called bump also? >> a bump. You bump somebody. Yeah, so, the bump is is not you physically actually bumping a person, but it's like you you engage with the

[12:25] person, you try to start a conversation, or you try to, you know, get what you're looking for. So, I would walk into his office, and I'm like, "Hey, you know, you on blue. Let me talk to you about that thing that we were talking about." He was like, "What are you talking about?" And I'm like, "You know, the thing with um the CO." And he's like, "Okay." So, usually it's him engaging me and me avoiding him, so I guess it felt kind of weird for me to um engage him on it. And I'm like, "Yeah, I found a girl, you know, she said, you know, she's willing to do it, whatever, blah blah." And he's

[12:57] like, "Oh." Sits back, smiles, and then he just becomes silent. So, I already I already knew this guy his, you know, spidey senses are up, right? That's right. So, I'm like, "Let me not push you too hard, you know, cuz then I look stupid and look suspicious, right? So, I'm just like, all right, well, let me know if you want What do you want to do?" And he's like, "Okay." All right. So, I leave. I go back,

[13:29] and I tell my handlers, "Look, Something's up. Somebody Somebody tipped him off, or he suspects you." I look stupid, you know, he he's look he's thinking I'm looking at me suspicious and everything. So, what ended up happening was they're like, you know, all right, go hang out with him off duty, and maybe when you guys are drunk or whatever, he'll, you know, mention more at the dinner or something like that, you know. So, you know, Lieutenant Song liked to hang out at karaokes,

[13:59] right? In the precinct, in the confines of the precinct. So, off duty, you know, I'm like, "Hey, where you going, Lou? You know, you're going to go out and drink? Oh, let's go and hang out, you know, I heard that this place has new girls. Let's go check them out, you know, maybe, you know, do some undercover work or something, blah blah, you know." And he liked going to specific places, so he was like, "Yeah, all right, fine, you know, we'll go to a spot." We went to a spot. Um it's called CEO. Uh it's one of the places on College Point in Flushing, and uh this guy named Jimmy

[14:30] owned it. All right. And Jimmy um Jimmy set us up outside, and when I went there, though, it was it wasn't just the lieutenant, it was detectives that were there, people from different units, vice, narcotics, um you know, people in the Detective Bureau, uh people in from the shooting range, like, different precincts. It was a bunch of cops. So, the cops are all drinking, you know, then Jimmy gets us a room, and, you

[15:01] know, we're drinking, we're hanging out, whatever. And the rape thing doesn't come on. It doesn't come up. The topic doesn't come up, all right? Cuz I'm I'm I'm like, "I'm look, why don't we get one of these girls?" And he's just like ignores me and starts drinking and talking about other stuff. He's trying to have fun, he's not trying to talk. So, I'm like, all right, I tell my handlers, "This is what happened." They're like, "Okay, you know, just keep going out with him, maybe he'll get used to you, you know, you get closer to him." Fine. As I'm going out and getting closer to him, though,

[15:31] the the setting changes. It goes from like, instead of being by the bar, we're like in a private room now. Um there's girls, you know, they're they're it's it's it's a bad scene, right? It's like um it's like if you've seen like really male chauvinistic uh bad gangsters, just the way they treat women, like, it's just "Come over here." Just grabs them, and then just starts groping them and stuff like that, and dry humping them on the

[16:02] speaker, take them to the bathroom and and raping them and and there's there's, you know, familiar faces in community where I knew I know like, I arrested this person before, or this person wanted for something, you know, like, he's a known criminal, whatever. And they're in there sniffing ketamine and cocaine and stuff, you know, smoking weed and everything, and I'm like, "The [ __ ] did I walk into?" Right? So, I go back and I tell my handlers, "Listen, you still You sure you want to go do this? Cuz you're opening up a

[16:33] whole can of worms here, you know, it's not just this rape charge we're talking about. There's a lot of criminality going on, all right? So, if we're going to do this, I want to know that you guys have my back, that we're going to fully do this, right? Cuz it's not just this lieutenant that's involved. You have other people from different units, and multiple cops, right? It was at least maybe like 20 cops that I seen within the first couple months, right? And I told them, "Look, it's not just these cops, because you have, yeah, detectives and and police officers, but you have mostly

[17:04] lieutenants, captains, and chiefs, right?" And they're like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, don't worry about it. Let's go straight to the police commissioner. You're You're the most protected cop in the NYPD right now, you know, um just go out and do it." And I was like, "Yeah, but nobody can know, right?" Cuz I'm technically undercover. I'm a uniform police officer, uniform sergeant, supervisor, playing a dirty cop to get into the inner circle, right? So, the way the NYPD's

[17:35] broken down is I I like to put them in different circles, right? Um you have the outer circle, which is regular cops that, you know, just doing their day job and going home at the day, you know, they just want to be police officers, want to do their job, want to go home. Then you have cops that have um hooks, we call them, right? Or cranes, right? Like, depending how big their the the person they know. And that person that they know will help them get them transferred to units that they want to go to, or help them get out

[18:05] of trouble when they do get into, you know, trouble and stuff like that. And those are called, you know, hooks, right? The people that hooked up. Then you have the inner circle, the core people. These are chess movers, right? Cuz everybody on Sad to say this, but everybody's kind of like on a chessboard, and everybody is is chess pieces, right? All the cops are like chess pieces. But you have certain people that can can move chess pieces, right? We call them chess movers.

[18:36] Meaning they have enough juice to control what happens, right? And these are the inner core people. And the inner core people, it could it's not just one precinct, it's it's happening everywhere in every precinct. Inner core people, they're hooked up with chiefs, or they're hooked up with, you know, deputy commissioners or mayors and stuff like that, right? Because it's politics that corrupt um the department, right? Which I think should be totally separate. Policing and

[19:07] politics should be totally separated. Also, I also believe that the NYPD should not be monitoring itself. Internal Affairs is is is all smoke and mirrors. It's not there for, you know, um fighting corruption. It's actually there for damage control and saving face for the NYPD, right? Like uh like uh public relations. Right. >> Right. So, they know where all the corruption is. It's just they don't want to do anything about it, because it's kind of like if you clean up all the corruption,

[19:38] you shock the system to the point where it can't operate anymore. So, they As we saw in the '70s. We That's exactly what happened in New York in the '70s. The the whole the whole police department was paralyzed because of the corruption investigations. >> Right. Like like Frank Serpico, right? I speak to Frank Serpico all the time and we compare stories back and forth and he said this is exactly the same thing that was going on. Nothing changed. Yeah, 50 years ago. It changes only the players, right? So, I don't know what it is. I think it's

[20:08] just the way the system is set up or whatever to operate, but it just self-preserves, right? So, whatever the case is, um uh the inner circle or core people that are actually it is driven by greed, power, um and it is just totally it's disgusting what what it what they're able to do and what they get away with. Okay? So, like I don't know if you follow the news lately what happened with the past

[20:39] administration with the mayor with Mayor Adams >> and his administration. Yeah. >> Oh, sure. >> where all the corruption come >> corrupt. Yeah, he was corrupt. And the people around him were >> that came out Yep. it was kind of the kind of like a glimmer of the surface, right? And you could see like the police commissioner and his brother was is under investigation by the feds now for extortion of the nightclubs and stuff like that. And that was the same setup that this lieutenant used,

[21:09] right? Whereas you have retired cops set up a security company and he would do security for the the nightclubs and stuff and if you don't use the security company, then you would get checked regularly and you know, they would summons you and harass you basically, right? And so, this is the the setup they went through. All right, so whatever the case is, that's how they filter the money, right? To legally say, "Oh, no, we're just doing security." But whatever the case is, um those are the three circles and for me to get into the inner circle, I had to

[21:41] pretend to be like them, right? They're not going to let somebody who's a true believer or like, you know, um somebody who's not as dirty as them to get into that inner circle. And they were like, "Okay, figure out which which which karaoke owner would be the best one to flip. Which which one more likely to flip?" I go, "Jimmy." Jimmy's a snake. You know, Jimmy's a snake and he'll do anything to survive, you know, um

[22:11] he's here legally and you know, he has the most to lose, right? And they're like, "All right, start approaching Jimmy." So, I started approaching Jimmy and I start telling him, "Oh, yeah, you know, short on cash, yeah, I got a lot of pressure, need to find some way to make some, you know, extra money, you know, whatever." And he's like, right away, felt so comfortable, "Oh, I'll make you a partner in in the business and, you know, you I'll pay you like $2,000 a month

[22:43] and, you know, all you have to do is like, you know, just keep these riffraffs out and, you know, just you know, make sure I don't get any tickets or just let me know when you guys can do a check or whatever and stuff like that." And I was like, "All right, you know, sounds good." I go back to my handlers, I tell them, they're like, "Great, do it." They felt so comfortable paying off cops and it happened, I guess, so regularly that they would pay me off in public.

[23:14] We would be we would be sitting at a tea house, right? And we're sitting there and in the Chinese tea house you had a and it was like one of those high-end tea houses. So, you have a a server just standing there, right? Waiting to pour tea for you and stuff like that. A server standing there. I'm sitting there in uniform, full uniform, on my lunch break, right? With, of course, internal affairs, you know, waiting. It's operation, right? So, I'm sitting in full uniform. Jimmy's partner's on my left side,

[23:44] Jimmy's on my right side. His partner's sitting right next to me here on a it's like a I guess it's a two-seater couch, right? And Jimmy's sitting on a like a single sitting couch and he's on my right side. And then the plan was, "Oh, I need to shut down my competition because, you know, business is not good and, you know, they're they're selling things that are lower price because they're laundering money and, you know, they're doing online gambling and drugs and prostitution. That's how they launder

[24:15] the money. They sell the bottles cheaper, but on paper they're putting it for more or whatever and stuff like that." Like, "All right, whatever. I don't care. What do you want me to do?" He's like, "Oh, I need you to shut them down, you know, get their liquor license taken away, revoked and stuff like that." And I would tell my handlers and then they would do operations, whatever, and it wouldn't go well, right? So, the point the it came down to the point where Jimmy would give me drugs and I would plant them there and then say, "Hey, we found drugs." Then we could shut them down. So,

[24:46] Jimmy's partner hand me some ketamine, right? It was clearly. It was like in a red bag. Opens up the red bag and he just pours it I'm like, "What is that?" And I'm like, you know, reaching for the red bag and he just pours it into my hand. It was like jars of ketamine. And I'm like, "What the [ __ ] are you doing? Like, we're in public." And the the the the girl is just looking at me, like the server. She's just looking at me. She's just like, "Whatever. I don't see anything." Right?

[25:16] So, I'm like, "Oh, come on. You can't do this in public." He's like, "Oh, no, no, don't worry. It's all right. It's all right." And I'm like, "You guys feel so comfortable to just pay me off in public and give me drugs in public, right?" Then Jimmy just shoves a envelope into my my pants pocket, right? While he's giving me the drugs. So, I'm like, "What the [ __ ] is going on? Like, these guys are just way too comfortable." So, I I go back to internal affairs, I give them everything. I tell them this is what happened. They're like, "Oh, this is great. Okay, great." So, I'm like, "All right, so you're going to plant the drugs here?" "No, no,

[25:47] no, we're going to voucher it and we're going to safeguard it and then, you know, we're going to add it to the charges and stuff like that." I'm like, "All right, cool." A week later the place gets shut down. I get excluded from operation, right? Um what happened end up happening was they internal affairs sent an undercover up there and they had the drugs on them and all of a sudden they find five jars of ketamine, which is the same five jars that I got. But they they claim that it wasn't the same. They claimed, "Oh, no, they actually found it at the place."

[26:17] And I'm like, "Come on, I'm not [ __ ] 5 years old. You know what I mean? I can put two and two together." So, they shut down the place. I go back to Jimmy. Jimmy ends up giving me $10,000 in cash. So, the regular payment was around $2,000 in cash every month for every spot that they own, every karaoke that they have that we're protecting. And then $10,000 in cash whenever you did a special favor like, um get somebody off an arrest, um you um help cover up like a overdose or

[26:49] something like that or a bar fight or whatever it is. Uh you take down the competition, apparently, and they give you $10,000 in cash, all right? I I end up doing that for like almost a year until they arrested Jimmy, right? It was hard. It was it was it was tiring because Risky? >> basically working two jobs, right? I was going in I had to still do my regular appearances and, you know, work my regular job to, you know, like I'm

[27:20] sergeant in the NYPD. I had to do my job, obviously, right? And then after hours I would have to go and hang out and, you know, do my undercover work. And there was a couple of times where I knew I couldn't um trust internal affairs was 2 months into the operation, the chief's driver, all right? Bosses have drivers. Drive them around and stuff. Um the chief's driver.

[27:52] I saw him at one one of the karaokes. Asian guy also, all right? Um I see him there. I'm not too familiar with him at the time. I wasn't that close to him and he's like, "Hey, Steve, you know, come on in, have a shot." I'm like, "How do you know my name? Like, I know your name, but I don't know you like that, right? So, why are you inviting me to come in? Two, I'm in uniform and I'm talking to the security guard cuz the security guard was my my CI, my confidential informant. He would tell me like, "Oh, this person's in here or this

[28:23] this one of the persons here or that person has a gun or that person has drugs, whatever." He would give me the heads up. And I'm talking to him and then, you know, the guy is going inside. He's like, "Oh, come in." He went inside, came back out. "Hey, Steve, come on, come on in." I'm like, "No, I'm good. I'm working. I can't." He's like, "Okay, okay, don't worry about it." He's like, "Look, you know, it's actually probably good that you don't come in cuz, you know, your boss came to meet with my my boss and they had a conversation. So, my commanding officer, who's ranked as a captain, had a conversation with the chief, right? And he said my name came

[28:56] up and that internal affairs is doing the operation and he and then my chief asks, you know, the driver, he said, "My chief asked me my boss asked me if you were okay guy." And I told him yeah, you were good, right? Cuz we were in the Asian Jade Society, which is like a fraternal society in in NYPD. That's how I knew him. So, I'm like, "All right, thanks. Whatever." He's like, "No, no, but seriously, internal affairs is watching you, so be careful." I'm like, "What the [ __ ] internal affairs watching me for? Internal affairs watching you. Get the [ __ ] out of my face. You're the one that's corrupt, right?"

[29:28] I try to play it off. I immediately turned back to my I I got scared cuz I'm like, "Why is the operation leaking out? You assured me that only my handlers would know, only my commanding officer knew and your commanding officer and went straight up to the chief after that. Like, only certain people were supposed to know. Why people know about the operation, right?" Yeah. I immediately called my handlers. My handlers don't pick up. I call my commanding officer. My commanding officer is like, "Oh, so what did he say?" I told him what he said. He's like, "Okay, cuz I had a meeting

[29:58] with the chief cuz she's my direct um supervisor. So, I have to, you know, report to her if there's a operation or whatever in precinct. But let me talk to internal affairs and the commissioner and see what what we could do get around that." >> Oh my god. So, after that, he stopped reporting to the chief. All right? The commissioner was like, "Don't don't report to her no more, right?" So, fine. And by commissioner, I don't mean Bratton at the time. I meant um the the commissioner of internal affairs. All right?

[30:29] So, whatever the case, that was the one-time leak. Second time a leak was um I was in the precinct. Internal affairs was doing overtime. And this is a unit from Brooklyn. I was in Queens. And they usually do out-of-borough overtime where they go and get these unlicensed massage places and then they claim that they were doing prostitution and stuff because of language barrier and all those other stuff. They're easy to catch. So, it's like they go in and they go, "Okay." They They speak in English, "Hey, you know, how much is it for sex?" or whatever. And a lot of the workers

[31:00] don't speak Chinese uh don't speak English. So, they're like, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, sit down, sit down, yes, yes, yes, yes, right?" And they take it as, "Okay, they said yes, right? We can arrest them. Prostitution." Which is [ __ ] right? A lot of times it's [ __ ] But they do it for overtime. And each body they they arrest, they get like 3 hours overtime, right? So, um I knew this guy that when I used to work in Brooklyn, I knew him and he's a sergeant now and he's a sergeant in

[31:31] internal affairs for Brooklyn. And he We had a conversation on the side. I'm like, "Hey, how you doing? How you been?" You know, he's like, "Oh, I'm great, you know, I'm just doing some overtime, whatever." For some reason, he goes, "Hey Steve, you know, stop Don't hang out in these uh karaokes, you know, cuz I guess he heard that I was hanging out in the karaokes. He's like, "Don't hang out in these karaokes, you know." And he named certain ones that we were doing operations in. And he goes, "Stop hanging out in these karaokes cuz internal affairs got operations going on in them." And I go,

[32:02] "How do you know?" All right? He's like, I was like, "How do you know? Aren't you in Brooklyn?" And he's like, "Yeah, but I have a friend in the Queens group and he told me." All right? After maybe 6 months into the operation or something like that, right? I The timeline gets fuzzy cuz it's it's 2 years I was undercover, right? So, it's somewhere midway through the the the undercover work where I meet up with my lieutenant.

[32:33] I go in. My lieutenant when as soon as they walk into the karaoke room, he goes, "Let me see your phone." And I'm like, "What?" He's like, "Let me see your phone." I'm like, "Okay, cool." I give him my phone. You know, I had a new phone at the time. I didn't Maybe he wanted to check it out. He's like, "Unlock it." I'm like, "What do you want, my girl? Like, what the [ __ ] you going through my phone for?" And he's like, "Just unlock it." Fine. I unlock it. Luckily, at that time, I was so paranoid already, right? That I would delete my phone calls from internal affairs. I would

[33:03] delete my text messages from internal affairs. They also had put an app on my phone where they could send a text message and turn on my camera and my mic at any time, right? Because me picking up the devices from them was just getting stupid. It was We kept on meeting at same same place, 7-Eleven. Kept on being the same My handler kept on dropping it off. And we kept on doing the same thing where it was stand by the the Slurpee machine and he'll put in the empty cup and I'll take the cup and I'll take it out of the cup and I'll get a Slurpee and then I'll go to the cash register.

[33:33] It It kept on being so routine where the cash register person even knew that he was a cop. Oh my god. >> the cash register guy was like, "Yo, that's a cop." And I go, "What do you mean?" Cuz he knows who's the regulars are cuz 7-Eleven is our spot, right? Where they do the right thing. They give you discounts or they give you free Slurpees or coffee and stuff like that. So, we would go there all the time, right? So, he knew who the people work in in the 109 were. So, when a new person comes in, he would be like, "That guy kind of suspicious. Like, is he really a cop?

[34:05] Does he really work with you guys?" cuz we don't see this guy often, right? So, he goes that he's a cop. I go, "How do you know?" He goes, "I saw his gun and his shield when he was gassing up." All right? And I go, "Great." So, I told them that. And I'm like, "Look, we can't do this no more cuz if one, my driver is getting suspicious why the [ __ ] I'm keep going to 7-Eleven getting Slurpees in the [ __ ] winter, right? Yeah. >> Two, every time we go there, he's starting to notice you and he's like, "Why is this guy always here when we come here?"

[34:37] Three, the cash register even [ __ ] identified you, right? So, we got to try something else. So, they Their tech team had this new technology. It was new at the time, right? Cuz this is 2013, 2014, right? Where they had an app where they put on the phone and they could just send text message and automatically turns on your camera and your and your um your your microphone. I was paranoid whenever they sent me a text turn on the camera and stuff and I would delete the text messages and I saved the my handlers' names under different names, right? So, it didn't Just in case

[35:08] he recognized the name and knew, "Wait, I know this person. He's in internal affairs, right?" I would change the names. So, he went through my phone. He went through my text messages. Went through my phone calls. Went through my pictures. Went through my email. And I'm like, "What the [ __ ] you doing?" All right? Give me my phone. Give What the [ __ ] you doing? He gives back my phone. He goes, "No, you're good." I'm like, "What the [ __ ] was that about?" He goes, "I think we got a rat." And I go, "Why the [ __ ] you going through my phone?" All right? I tried to play it off. I'm

[35:39] like, "So, what the [ __ ] you going through my phone?" He's like, "No, I had to check everybody. I checked everybody." And I go, "All right, so who the [ __ ] you think the rat is? Like, what Who you think it is?" He's like, "I think it's Jimmy." I'm like, "Oh. So, why the [ __ ] are we here?" All right? Why we at Jimmy's spot? That's why we're here to find out. So, I go walk out. I look around. I go outside. Have a cigarette. Looking around. I'm like, "All right." Make a phone call.

[36:11] Call my handlers. Call my handlers. No answer. I call my commanding officer. Finally picks up. I go, "Where is everybody? I need help. This guy just went through my [ __ ] phone. I think I'm burned. I think he knows. He thinks Jimmy's a you know, a rat whatever and stuff like that. So, he might know that Jimmy's working with us and everything and then he gives me up, I'm [ __ ] right? So, get me out." He's like, "All right, let me call you Let me call the group and see what's going on." Calls the group. They don't answer.

[36:42] This is like around maybe midnight-ish. Um so, I had to hang out with with the lieutenant. I'm stuck there hanging out with him drinking. And I'm like, "All right, I'm going to go." It's like 3:00 in the morning. I'm like, "I got to go. I got next I got a shift tomorrow, you know, I got a day tour tomorrow. I got to go." Fine. I go I go home. Get home like around 3:00 in the morning. Then I get a phone call. All right? It's from my my handler, the sergeant. He goes, "Hey big guy, you called?" I go, "Yeah, where were you guys?" He

[37:12] goes, "What do you mean? I just got into work. You know, I have a family, too, whatever." And I go, "Yeah, but the operation started at, you know, 2200 hours. Like, it's 0300. Like, you know, it's started at 10:00 p.m. It's 3:00 in the morning now. Like, where were you guys? Who was out there watching me then?" And he's like, "Oh, nobody's out there watching you, big guy. You're a big guy. Don't worry. You can handle yourself." I go, "Are you [ __ ] kidding me? You send me in to a, you know, a dirty karaoke place, right? Where all this

[37:43] illegal activity is happening. Run by gangsters, like Chinese triad gangsters. These are the same people that, you know, during the bus wars in Chinatown shot up, you know, people and shot them up, put them in suitcases and left them at the bus depot. You All right? They're doing human trafficking in the place. They're doing prostitution. They're doing drugs, you know, and they're there with 30 cops, right? So, think about it. We're in the confines of the precinct. If they wanted to, they could just take me to the back, shoot

[38:13] me, leave, erase the footage, say the camera's not working. The detective, which is one of the 30 cops that we were investigating, will catch the case. He'll come and investigate and he'll be like, "Oh yeah, Steven Lee was dirty and he got shot by gangsters while getting paid off by dirty gangsters and stuff." Mhm. Easy. Right? Right. And you guys aren't there to to to protect me or or or clear my

[38:44] name on it, right? So, I'm like, "So, what happened with the phone? Who sent the text message to my phone to turn my phone on?" Right? I was like, "Did you get any recordings and stuff?" Then all of a sudden, it's like, "Oh uh yeah, we we got some recordings, but it was unclear cuz the music in the in the room was too loud and some of the stuff we couldn't hear." I'm like, "You're just [ __ ] [ __ ] You didn't get [ __ ] You guys were [ __ ] home sleeping, getting overtime for this [ __ ] and you weren't watching me, right?" So, from that point on, I knew I

[39:16] couldn't trust internal affairs. That I'm on my own out there, right? Where it's like I'm deep cover. I'm out there on my own and my life is in danger and I have to protect myself. So, I end up going to the street, right? So, I knew some people that I that in the neighborhood that I knew that used to be gangsters and stuff like that or that, you know, had some kind of dark past, but they reformed and they're like, you know, legit now and they're trying to do good for the community, give back and stuff like that. So, I knew some of these people, and I'm talking to them like, "Look, this is what's going on.

[39:46] I might need your protection if things go south." All right? And they're like, "Steve, Chinese Chinese gangs, they work differently, right?" They go, "Steve, >> [clears throat] >> we don't like dirty cops. All right? We understand you're a cop, and you do your thing, all right? But, you know, we don't like dirty cops. So, it's either you're white or you're black. You can't be gray. All right? And don't worry, we got your back." And from that point, you know, at least

[40:18] I knew I had somebody watch my back in case the gangsters want to retaliate against me cuz if, you know, the cops retaliate against me, I realized I At that time, it didn't hit me that they could go that far where they could send me to prison and stuff like that, right? I I didn't think it would go that far. So, in the case is under the after the operations, uh you know, after 2 years, we end up arresting the lieutenant and the detective. Um internal affairs [ __ ] up the case so bad where the DA had to give them deals on misdemeanor charges instead of felony charges. They're supposed to get felony

[40:49] charges and 1 year jail time, and instead, the DA had to give misdemeanor charges and 1 year probation. Oh my god. And then they went after you is the issue. Before we go on to our next question, uh a word from our sponsors. A digital dollar has the potential to let the government track every transaction you make, freeze your account without a court order, restrict what you can purchase, automatically deduct fines or taxes, even put an expiration date on your own savings.

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[41:50] 1-888-GOLD-053 to request one by mail. That's johnlovesgold.com or 888-GOLD-053. Steven, at this point in your life, things are starting to get a little hairy, and I got to tell you, I've I've been there. I remember like the instant that I realized, "Wait a minute, they're investigating me." And things were never the same after

[42:21] that. So, start there. Tell us about your your into this now for 2 years. You're trying to do the right thing. You're working with internal affairs to bring essentially crooked cops to justice. And then you realize, "This isn't working out the way it's supposed to." Take it from there. Yes, sir. So, after we arrested the lieutenant and the detective, um I was actually upset that they decided to cut the undercover work early, right?

[42:53] Cuz to me, I was just getting into that inner circle, that core that I was telling you about. And I told them, "Look, man, I'm I'm just getting in there, and I just started, you know, investigating um the chief's driver and and other lieutenants from different precincts and different units, like vice units and stuff like that, and um you know, those higher-ups I was getting introduced to who was actually protecting them and stuff like that. And they were like, "No, the chiefs want to shut it down." Um you know, at first, they didn't even

[43:24] want to go after the criminality, right? They were just going after administrative charges. They just want to slap a hand on the wrist and then, you know, transfer them out and call it, you know, call it a day, but I was like, you know, this is this is not right. You know, tell them that we're about to get to the root of the, you know, of the core of this. And one thing that hit me, um when what they told me was, "Steve, fighting corruption is like fighting the war on drugs. You take one drug dealer off the corner, another one's going to pop up." And I was at that time,

[43:55] uh I was I was a true true believer, right? Where internal affairs are the good guys and all that stuff. And I realized after all this like how naive I was, right? It's all an illusion. And I told them, my exact words were, "What are you [ __ ] crazy? Like, that's why you got to chop off the head, right? It's like going after, you know, instead of going after the drug dealer on the corner, you go after the cartel, or, you know, you you cut off the supply, right? Or, you know, and they just they just shook their

[44:26] head. They're like, "No, it doesn't work like that." All right? Um I understand it more now, of course, because now I understand like, you know, there's politics involved, and if you keep going up, it's just going to keep going up and up and up and up, and it's not going to stop anywhere, right? Um what end up happening was after I said that, being the true believer, I kept on pushing the issue. All right? One, it was it was my community that they were destroying and poisoning. Um two, during the investigation, I seen

[44:59] different incidents where the system failed to protect its people and failed to actually do its job, right? And I want to fix it. But, you know, now I realize it's it's not fixable, right? It's just the wheel keeps turning, and we just have to get what we get, right? And um I'm sorry. It's just thinking about it is just, you know, it's just PTSD is bringing up a lot. >> absolutely, and I I understand that. I

[45:31] And that actually leads me to ask you this question. I Like you, I'm friendly with Frank Serpico. Frank Serpico is one of the giants of the 20th century. I I put Frank up there with with, you know, the greatest whistleblowers of the 20th century, Daniel Ellsberg, for example. Frank was actually shot in the face, Yes. >> and his and his police colleagues didn't even call an ambulance. They wanted him to die in this drug

[46:02] operation. Did you fear for your safety when you realized that this deck was secretly stacked against you? Did you fear for your safety out there on the street? Yes, absolutely. So, during my my investigation, when I told you that I realized there was nobody out there backing me up. In hindsight, I could see all the situations they put me in and why they put me in those situations where they wanted me to They wanted my undercover work to fail, one. And they wanted me to put me in

[46:32] danger, right? Um so, you see later on like after after all this, I went to internal affairs {quote} {unquote} for my safety. I was wiped from the system. I was I was like a true ghost where if you punch in my name to the system, like it's like I I stopped existing. And that right away blew my cover. I was burned straight straight out of the bat. Everybody knew it was me. They're like, "What happened to Sergeant Lee? How come he's not here? How come he show up for

[47:02] work next day? You know, where is he? We can't find him in the computer and stuff like that." And all this other stuff, right? So, right off the bat, it they knew it was me. They assured me when my undercover work began that that wasn't going to happen, that, you know, Jimmy was going to be the person that was going to be the informant, and I would be referred to as UC-5073, which is the number they assigned me at the time, right? And and so forth. So, I went to internal affairs. I was there for like about, uh maybe close to

[47:33] 2 years also. And there's where I realized who's the rat that snitched me out. The internal affairs is nothing but smoke and mirrors, right? We have a saying, even other good even good police officers say all the time, "It's all smoke and mirrors. It's all [ __ ] It's all show and pony uh horse and pony show." You know, it's it's all it's all there to save face for the NYPD, right? Where

[48:04] if they really truly fought corruption, it would shock the system and destroy the credibility of NYPD. Also, you have to remember, the legality of it is if all these police officers are arrested, then people that they previously convicted can also file for appeal Absolutely. >> and say, "Hey, look, this guy is a corrupt police officer. I was framed." And so forth or targeted and so forth and so on, right? Now, the scary part is,

[48:34] keep this in mind, if they could do this to me, imagine what they could do to the average citizen. Mhm. Yeah, you weren't just some kid off the street. You were a sergeant. >> Right, exactly. I I was a police officer for 8 years before I got promoted. In a very busy precinct. So, I learned how to handle, you know, high-stress situations, um murders, armed robberies, commercial robberies, stick-ups, you know, hostage situations. I learned all that in Brooklyn, and it was very tough streets, very, you know,

[49:05] very busy precinct. Great cops I worked with. For some reason, the busy precincts, I guess they don't have time for the [ __ ] and they don't have time to, you know, scheme all this corruption and stuff like that. So, the slower precincts are more prone to corruption and stuff, right? And it's not just the precinct I worked in. It's every precinct has their own own scam going on, right? Internal affairs knows about all of it. It's just they choose not to go after it because it's not going to hit them in the it's not going to hit the press, right? So, the busier precincts, they're

[49:36] just busy answering 911 calls one after the other, one after the other. They don't have time to socialize with the businesses, the business owners. They don't have time to socialize with people in in the community and stuff like that. And therefore, they less um they have less time to be recruited. Right? So, the recruitment goes like this, right? It's like Okay, I'm a business owner. You come into my business. I give you free coffee. I give you free food, right? We engage in conversations.

[50:07] Then it's like, "Oh, yeah, you know, how's your family? How's the holidays? Oh, you know, stuff like that. How's it going?" Then all of a sudden it becomes, "Oh, you know, um I got this ticket. Can you look at it for me?" And then they'll be like, "All right, you know what? Since I like this place, since I come here, you take care of me, you give me you give the cops discounts or, you know, you give them free coffee or whatever. Don't worry about it. We'll make it go away." Right? Then it becomes, you know, they try to target in on whoever helps the most. Cuz

[50:38] most some cops will be like, "Nah, sorry, I can't do anything." Right? Other cops, you know, they'll try to exculpate to the person. And those are the people that are recruitable. Right? Like you would say. They're recruitable. So, they spend more time and effort on that person where it's like, "Oh, you know, here, take this for your kid, you know, for Christmas or here, you know, you you you have a family a wedding or dinner or whatever. Don't worry, come here, it's on us. I'll take care of you, whatever and stuff like that." And they become closer and

[51:09] closer, then it becomes, "Oh, you know, my nephew got arrested. Can you help me out here or whatever, blah blah." And it becomes like they try to approach it where it's like legal and they don't come out saying, "Hey, look, he was a major drug dealer and stuff like that, whatever." You know what I mean? But it it they start to see where how far they could uh push you. Right? And then it becomes like, "Okay, you become so close where it's like, hey, you know, why don't we go into business together, you know? And we can

[51:39] make money together." And then you become a partner. Right? Meanwhile, they got you on payroll. That's what it really is. Right? So, when you have more time on your hands, you're able to engage with people like that more. But in busier precincts, you're answering call from call. You're just running from one job to the other. You don't even have time to eat. Right? Most of the time. So, um when I'm hap- So, that's how it is in slow precincts and busier precincts. But after I went to internal affairs, I saw the people that was there. I saw how they operated. I saw the secret like

[52:11] quote-unquote secret programs that they had to get around warrants and stuff like that. So, law enforcement don't don't be fooled where you think government agencies need warrants. All right? There are several ways to get around that now, right? Especially with social media and everything online now. So, you have social media that gathers your information, right? And they sell it to private companies. Right? Private investigative companies.

[52:43] And these private investigative companies, they open up firms and then what happens is the NYPD or the FBI or something like that will purchase a contract with that company, right? Where the company supplies them the information. So, if I if they punch in my phone number, all my calls will pop up, all who I call, who they call, you know, where I've been, my social media, all this information will pop up. And they don't need a warrant for that because it's not them personally gathering the information. They're

[53:14] buying it from a third-party company. That's their that's their you know, their loophole. It's the same thing with license plate readers, right? When license plate readers first came out, we were asked like, "Don't we need a warrant to run somebody's plate for no reason?" And they go, "No, because this all this information that's popping up is coming from a third-party company and that's that's the loophole." Like they purchased the information from a third-party company. All right? So, I see all this information, all these violations of rights and stuff. And I was kind of like getting turned off

[53:45] about it. And then I realized internal affairs is actually more dirtier than the cops in the street. Because there's nobody monitoring them. Right? So, here here's the circle jerk. You have NYPD that's monitored by internal affairs. But who monitors internal affairs? Internal affairs is broken up into many groups. Right? You have group one which monitors internal affairs members and captains

[54:16] and above. That right there should be a red flag. Right? But who monitors group one? You have group 25 that work with the feds. Right? So, if FBI has a case on somebody or CIA or whatever the CIA rarely has some a case against a cop, but let's say FBI most of the time or DEA or something like that has a case against NYPD officer, right? Group 25 will work with with the feds. It's like a joint task force. Right?

[54:46] But the feds don't trust the NYPD. They don't trust local police departments. So, with good reason. And the only thing that they supply with is like work schedules and like, you know, um credentials and stuff like that. Right? So, who what who monitors group 25? Group 25 monitors group one and group one monitors group 25 because they're internal affairs members. So, it's like you watch me, I watch you. It's basically a circle jerk, right? Because one day you're working with

[55:16] group one in group one, and next day you're group working in group 25, and next day you're working in the precinct. So, it's like you're you're you're not going to rat on your own friend or your own brother, right? Or sister in in a department. So, that's the problem right there. And when I saw that problem, you know, I was like already turned off. And at that point when I was in internal affairs, when they asked me to do this or that, like I gave them the bare minimum. And you know, I I kept to myself and um they they started to retaliate against me,

[55:48] changed my schedule around, um working all different type of hours, exhausting me physically, then mentally, screaming on me, uh nitpicking on me for every little thing, my bad evaluations and all this other stuff. And my union rep, um he worked in group seven at the time. And he was the only union rep that actually helped me in the union. >> Wow. Right? And he helped me because one, he was about to retire. He was on his way out. Um two, he worked in group seven, which

[56:20] was the the TARU um the tech people. They gave you the fake IDs. Um they listened to all the recordings. They retrieved all the recordings and stuff like that. And he saw the recording before they edited before they lost it. Right? Or before, you know, they decide to discard it. And he's like, "Steve, I know you did a great job out there. I don't know why they're coming after you. But it seems like they got them watching orders and you should get yourself a lawyer." So, I said, "Great. All right.

[56:53] Let's call the union. Let me get a union lawyer." He goes, "No. Don't use the union. The union's going to use it as a bargaining chip. You should go out and get a private lawyer." So, I went out. I searched for a private lawyer. I got a private lawyer, which cost me money, right? Even though, you know, some people do a contingency, but you still got to put a retainer down. Um then all of a sudden I was transferred out. And I got administrative desk duty um at the police academy.

[57:23] And you know, just off the streets. One, I was kind of um relieved cuz they wanted to put me back in the street. They wanted they wanted to put me back in the in this in precincts where these cops that I investigated that got away were working. Mhm. And I'm like, "That's the whole point of you bringing me to internal affairs. This is my safety. I can't go back out." >> getting shot. Right? It's like just like Serpico. So, that popped into my head right away. Like, I'm going to get shot

[57:54] like Serpico. Right? And when my lawyer pushed for it, like, you know, that's when I got um transferred to uh the police academy and stuff. And at least I was off the street. Right? Um I decided to run for politics cuz at that time I was like, you know what? They're not going to do anything. I need to get into position of power to one, protect myself, >> It's good thinking. >> and to push for change. So, I I figured, look, there's corruption every government in every um

[58:24] part of the government, right? So, city, state, federal. Right? So, I'm thinking city has its own corruption. State has a their own corruption. And so does federal. But how it works is state will be willing to enforce corruption on the city in order to keep up this illusion of them actually doing their job, yet still have their own state

[58:55] corruption going on. So, it's possible for me to get into a state position where I could create a community-based agency to oversee the NYPD instead of NYPD overseeing itself. So, I ran for state assembly. Right? Um politics is even worse >> [gasps] >> than law enforcement. Um it was so bad. It it it I was doxxed. I was gaslit.

[59:26] Um The DSA are just so vicious. So vicious and gaslighting, like just making up stuff and destroying your mental health. Right? Um after I lost the election, it kind of gave the green light to NYPD to come down on me even harder because um the incumbent that I ran

[59:56] against wrote a letter basically saying "Hey, investigate this guy." Whatever. So, now the NYPD is like, "Oh, we got green lights from the politicians as well." >> Oh my god. So, they came down on me hard. Um I was sitting in my patrol car. My lieutenant came to, you know, and just started screaming on me for no reason. For some reason, that that was like kind

[1:00:26] of like the straw that broke my back and I remember taking out my service um pistol. I had a Glock. Um I put it to my my chin and I was ready I was ready to end it. Um I was scared mostly because of my family. They They retaliate They don't just go after you, they go after your family, too, right? So, their their playbook, for some reason, I seen it happen to you, too, right? So,

[1:00:57] their playbook is exhaust you physically, exhaust you mentally, destroy you financially, dirty you dirty your rep up, and then hopefully you go kill yourself or you get killed. Right? And um my thing was they already sent my daughter to the psych ward once out of out of uh you know, junior high school. She was in uh lab and whatever, they sent her to the psych ward. My My wife was pregnant with my new with

[1:01:29] my son at the time. My political opponent doxxed us in the middle of the Black Lives Matter movement and said, "Here's a racist and corrupt cop, and here's his address." Oh my god. And I was like, "You know what? I don't want my family go do this. And if I took myself out the picture, then maybe they'll stop, right?" So, everything was going bad for me and I was like, "You know what? I'll probably [ __ ] this up, too, killing myself. I'll

[1:01:59] probably just end up like being a vegetable or something like that." Yeah. >> So, I took out, you know, I unloaded I did some dry runs. I'm like, "All right, should I do it this angle, this angle, whatever?" And at that around that time, a lot of cops were committing suicide. And um thank god they they created this app where you could go on and get outside counseling instead of NYPD in in-house counseling, right? And I was like, "You know what? I don't want them to win. [ __ ] them. I'm not going to let them win. So, I reached out

[1:02:30] to a counselor at um Columbia University and uh I got on meds. Uh the job found out, took away my gun, Ugh. put me on even worse desk duty. Um and you know, I slowly recovered from that. But legally wise and harassment didn't stop. So, I kept on getting harassed at work. Um this goes on for like maybe until 2022, right? So, after COVID,

[1:03:04] I haven't gone out in a while. My friend's birthday, he asked me go out to the club and just like, you know, celebrate, go out, have a drink. He's like, "Look, I know you've been through a lot. Just come out, have a drink with the guys and you know, try to forget about things." I go out. I see my female friend there and long story short, she gets sexually assaulted. I break them up. I tell the security guard. Security guard breaks them up. The guy refuses to leave. He then turns around minutes later, sexually assaults her again. It's all on camera, right? I then tell her, "Go over there." Let me

[1:03:36] tell the security guard again. Tell the security guard again. He refuses to leave again. I turn around to call the boyfriend over to let the boyfriend know, "Hey, this is your problem. It's not my problem. It's not my girl, you know, I'm Yeah, the person, right? Trying to protect somebody. But the boyfriend, as I'm calling the boyfriend over, I turn back around, I see her and the guy interlocked. They're like pulling each other's shirt. I push the guy back. You know, I hit him twice in the head. There was no injuries. It was broken up right away, just within seconds. Everybody gets kicked out of the club.

[1:04:07] Boyfriend finds out, knocks the guy out. I tell him, "Look, the guy's knocked out. I think he's good. Stop." He stops. We turn around. His friends are trying to come at us. The security guard's holding them back and whatever. Next day, they put on social media, "Unprovoked attack." I'm like, "This is bullshit." Um when the cops that investigated saw this online. You're good. >> Asian community is very small, right? Um He He confers with the cop I did arrest.

[1:04:38] First of all, that's criminal association, right? Confers with the cops I did arrest. Reports it to the same Internal Affairs Group that I was undercover with and that I was suing and whistleblowing on. They go out and investigate. They arrest me for acting in concert. They said, "You were standing there. You didn't stop the attack." I go, "Yeah, because there's like five bouncers standing there, also. And I'm off duty. I'm not going to jump into the fight where five bouncers are

[1:05:08] scrambling around and they don't know who's who and they get I'm going to end up getting punched by a security guard. So, yeah, of course I'm just standing there making sure I'm not being attacked or, you know, anybody else is being attacked, you know? Like people behind me, I'm making sure everybody is separated, right?" >> [snorts] >> Charged me acting in concert. Nobody else was arrested, though. So, how do I act in concert with somebody else when nobody else is arrested? The person who ends up knocking the kid out, he turns himself in a year later, right? Confesses to everything. Pleads guilty to felony charges. And yet they

[1:05:41] tell him, "Yeah, we're not interested in you." He doesn't get any jail time. Felony charges. Get no jail time. Stayed out of jail for 3 years. Gets repled down to a misdemeanor. End of that. Me? They fire me before my trial starts, right? Two Two years after that my my trial starts. In 2024, my trial starts. I beat the felony charges. So, I I get found guilty of um hitting

[1:06:12] the guy inside. They said that was attempted assault, right? Which is basically harassment, right? For it not to be assault, you have to have injuries. And you can ask any cop if they ever took a report for attempted assault. There's no such charge. It's either assault or harassment, right? Because if you push somebody and there's no injuries, it's harassment. And the cop has to be there to witness it to be able to issue a summons, right? If you punch somebody and they say, "Ouch, it hurt." That's an assault, right? Because it's physical injury.

[1:06:45] The kid said he didn't it didn't hurt inside whatever. Okay, fine. Attempted assault. Then another assault charge on this kid that got beat up by other people and the camera view is from me across street where cars are passing by and you can't even see anything. They go, "Oh, yeah, you hit the kid somewhere over there cuz he said so." I go, "What are you talking about? I'm screaming at the kid cuz the that kid just beat up another girl at the scene." All right, whatever the case case is, fine.

[1:07:15] Um probation office interviews me cuz after you you know, you after the trial, you have to go interview with a probation office, right? And the probation office asked me, "Hey, do you plan on appealing?" And I go, "Well, I had a public defender because the lawyer I hired right end up being in bed with the DAs, right? So, what you what I learned is the DA's office and the police department, they work hand in hand. Forget this whole illusion of DA hates the police, the police hates the DA. No. Everybody works hand in hand. It's all part of the same body. It's just the

[1:07:46] right >> of judges were um assistant district attorneys earlier in their careers. Yeah. >> So, it's like the right arm, the left arm, and the head, and the body. It's all the same body, right? So, they all work together. Judges, the DAs, the police department, the corrections department. They all work together. Okay? So, when I interview with the probation office, you know, I had a public defender at that at the end of my trial I end up having a public public defender, right? That was the only person I I I could go with and that only

[1:08:18] person I could afford after all these lawsuits and stuff like that over the course of 8 years, right? So, >> [clears throat] >> um I tell him, "Look, I think my public defender automatically appeals." They okay, um do you want to talk about the case or did he direct you not to talk about it? I said, "I He directed me not to talk about it." They okay. >> [snorts] >> At the sentencing, which is like a month later after, you know, the jury um announced their their conviction, right?

[1:08:48] At the sentencing, the judge goes, "Steve Steven Lee, this has nothing to do with the Chinese Exclusion Act. This has nothing to do with Chinese racism or you being Asian. This has nothing to do with NYPD retaliating against you or the system retaliating against you. This has nothing to do with, you know, um corruption or anything like that. You claim that you plan on appealing and that shows me that you show no remorse for what you did.

[1:09:19] And therefore, I'm sentencing you for 6 months for the assault three and 3 months for the attempted assault three to run concurrent. Bailiff, take him away. And I didn't get time to turn myself in cuz usually they give you time to turn yourself in and stuff like that, get your stuff in order. I was going there thinking I was getting probation cuz probation officers recommended probation and anger management classes. The DA wanted a year, which was ridiculous, right? So, the judge gave me 9 months.

[1:09:50] And I'm like, what is going on? Like, wait a second. First of all, who said anything about the China Exclusion Act? Where the hell did that come from? Who said anything about, you know, like >> That That in and of itself should be basis for appeal. Right. So, then I was like, what Who mentioned anything about police retaliation? Yeah. I mentioned it, but not during the trial. It didn't come up during trial. So, how you even know about it? Right? How you know about that? All these

[1:10:21] people that that arrested me and all these people that testify against me I actually has civil lawsuits against and, you know, I was blowing the whistle on. Like, how did you know about that? Down to the point where the person that was delivering at the DA's office, one of the cops transferred from internal affairs, went into the DA's office, worked for the DA, and he was the one that handed the video to them. Like, all these people I used to work with in internal affairs that I was suing. And that I was saying were corrupt. So, what are the cases? They take me to the back. The court

[1:10:52] officer is like shaking his head. I'm like, what the [ __ ] just happened? Because this is Manhattan, New York. Nobody gets jail time for assault. >> you can push somebody in front of a subway train and not get jail time. Right. Exactly. You know what I mean? Like, what is going on? Like, my my case should have been thrown out. Right? So, the court officer is shaking his head. He's like, we don't know what just happened. Like, that usually doesn't happen. We're disappointed, too. We have no idea.

[1:11:23] My lawyer comes in to the back. I I ask him the same thing. What just happened? He goes, "Ugh, he's a tough judge. What do you want me to tell you?" And I go, "Are you [ __ ] kidding me?" So, I go straight to Rikers. All right. Um And that had to be terrifying because you're a police officer and you're going to be thrown in with these animals that are at Rikers. And Rikers is known as probably the most violent jail in America. Yeah.

[1:11:54] And you mean institution? >> Inhumane. The The legislature has ordered it closed like six different times. The city just ignores them. >> It's It's under federal jurisdiction now. That's right. Um So, the sitting in back of the van going to Rikers was I don't know. I I just it felt so real. Like, I I wasn't I was like, this can't be [ __ ] happening. I mean, this can't

[1:12:25] be real. Somebody's going to hop out and be like, "Okay, we're just kidding." Right? Like, what's what's going on? Like, I can't I can't believe this is Am Am I Am I sleeping? Am I imagining? Am I hallucinating? Is this Is this Are my meds [ __ ] me up? Like, where What is going on? So, it takes about like an hour to get there, right? Because they had to drop people off at other prisoners at Bellevue and stuff like that. And um

[1:12:56] when I get to Rikers, the correction officer there was like, "Don't worry. We know who you are. We'll take care of you." I thought it was a I thought it was a good sign Yeah. >> Yeah. I'm like, all right. Maybe, you know, they'll show some courtesy and they know what happened. I got [ __ ] over and these are some good people that, you know, look out for me. So, they take my stuff away, you know, strip me naked, squat, cough.

[1:13:26] I put on my um they had um browns there. Right? The uniform is brown. I put on the browns, put on these kung fu shoes looking things. Take me to my cell. Uh I was protected custody. They shackle me. So, they order me to be in a box it's called, right? Where >> I got the box. >> are shackled. >> Oh, yeah. And those are shackled to your waist. Mhm. >> Your waist is then shackled to your leg shackles. Mhm. And I'm walking like

[1:13:57] this. And they put a steel box over the the wrist shackles so that you can't pick the pick the cuffs and escape. Ridiculous. >> they claim it's for your own safety. Yeah. Right. Sure. >> "How is this for my safety? If somebody comes attacking at attacking me, cuz nobody else is cuffed. Right? The hallways are supposed to be clean before you walk, right? Nobody else is supposed to be around. But, it's just it's unfeasible. They don't have enough manpower to do that. So, they let other prisoners just

[1:14:28] walking around and stuff. So, I'm like, how's this for my own safety? They come charging at me. How am I going to defend myself? I'm supposed to defend I'm supposed to depend on you, the guy who's handicapping me? You know? So, what are the cases? I'm walking to my cell. They put me in protected custody. I'm in my own room in solitary. On the same block that I learned later on all murderers. All murderers. One guy who chopped the head off the the godfather of the bloods and stuff like that in the in the Bronx.

[1:14:59] Another guy who was a drug dealer gone bad, murdered the guy. And then later on they transferred over officers, dealers, cop killers um on the same block. And all of them were very aggressive towards me. So, we all share the same phone line. So, when you want the phone, you have to tell them to get off the phone in order for you to use the phone. Or you have to wait forever, which never comes around, right? >> [clears throat] >> I make phone call out. And then um

[1:15:30] you know, I'm talking to my people make sure that my car was given back to my wife and stuff like that, my keys and everything got back. Um one of the COs, before I made the phone call though, one of the COs uh the sergeants there are ranked captains, right? So, they don't have the sergeant rank. They go straight to captain. And she's walking with me. She's talking to me. She's like, "What happened?" And I go, "It was a bar fight. My female friend got sexually assaulted.

[1:16:00] I told the bouncer. I They The fight got broken up. Boyfriend end up knocking a kid out. Boyfriend gets no jail time. I get jail time." And they're like, "Yeah, you you were beating kids, right?" And I was like, "What What the [ __ ] you talking about? They're all adults. They're in the bar. They're over like They're all [ __ ] in their 20s and stuff and 30s maybe, right?" >> [snorts] >> And they're like, "Oh, okay. I'm glad I got the story from you directly. I'm glad I talked to you directly." So, then after that I got a better room, you know, stuff like that. But, before I was I was like it felt like a scene out of a horror movie where the lights are

[1:16:30] flickering, the bed is inclined, the TV is stuck on one channel blasting and I can't change the channel. I can't lower the volume. I couldn't sleep. It was freezing in the room. I had no blanket, no pillow. Couldn't sleep down. Next day, once they found out that that wasn't I wasn't a child beater, you know, I was thinking like, where the [ __ ] they get this from, right? So, when I called my friend up, he said, "We checked your record and that the court clerk had add a false charge, right? Said caregiver abuser, which

[1:17:01] meant child abuser." So, people were in there thinking, "Here's a corrupt cop that's beating kids." They did that on purpose to cause you harm. Yes. They were hoping somebody would take it out on you. Right. But, that's what That's what they hate the most inside is sexual offenders and child abusers. >> child, yeah. Exactly. And And that that marks you for death automatically. Right? It's a death sentence. When we went out to the yard, we were all individually escorted out.

[1:17:33] And then we were put in another cage fence, right? But, the cage fences are, you know, it's right next to each other. So, I'm talking to them next to me to the guy next to me cuz I had to get out of the room. It was just You can't be in the room all day. No, you go crazy. Yeah, it was good for like the first couple of days to like try to like meditate and get some silence and like trying to regather my thoughts and everything and you know, settle in and um observe the situation. But, then after a while I had to get out. So, I went out to the yard.

[1:18:04] You know, they're all doing their I straight out of the movies where they're doing their um their their their burpees and stuff like that, right? Going down, go jump up, whatever. Everybody do the same time to work out together. The guy next to me wasn't working out. So, you know, I introduced myself. I I knew they knew I was a cop right. So, I told him straight up what happened and my story before that. He's like, "Oh, wow. I'm glad you talked to me cuz, you know, we were about to like make a move on you." >> Yeah, they give you a beat down.

[1:18:35] >> see that they were setting you up. They're trying to get you, you know, murdered in here. So, don't worry. We know how corrupt they are cuz, you know, everybody in there knows how corrupt NYPD is, right? And they're like, "Don't worry. We got your back." So, from that moment on like I I trusted the inmates more than I trusted the COs, the correction officers. And some of the correction officers I actually worked with before. And I was actually friends with. And when I went in there they were just

[1:19:05] like, "Fuck this guy. This guy's a rat. [ __ ] him, right?" And I saw that interview that you had with uh that other ex-CIA agent Andrew, whatever his name is. The Oh, Bustamante. Every Every Yeah. Everyday Spy Guy. Yeah. And um >> when when he was like, "Why did you do that? Why would you do that? Why would you do that?" And it's like, and you you said that one thing, "Oh, you're a true believer." And

[1:19:36] I faced that so many times explaining to other police officers sometimes where they're like, "Why would you do that? Why would you do that? You know, you sold out your own people." And I'm like, "Are you [ __ ] kidding me?" Are you [ __ ] kidding me? Are you Are you Are you like that naive? You know what I mean? Like, you think they're going to protect you? No. Today it's me, tomorrow it's you. That's right.

[1:20:07] As soon as you cross that line you're under the bus. Don't think for one moment they're going to be like, "Oh, this guy, he he helped us fight crime and stuff and all these other things and keep people safe." No, they don't give a [ __ ] about that. Their their thing is who's going to protect this system of ours? Mhm. Right? That's right. >> Who's going to keep the wheels turning? That's the only people they they promote. That's the only people they

[1:20:37] protect are people who keep the wheels turning. They don't give a [ __ ] about fighting corruption. They don't care about justice. They don't care about integrity. No. They care about money coming in. Money coming to our pockets and the wheels keep turning. That's all they care about. And you know, after after all that, like I guess they left me alone for a little bit now. Um you know, I lost my 18-year pension.

[1:21:08] I had a uh line of duty injury that they actually approved for me to get disability from NYPD, which is uh we call it three quarters, right? It's the accidental disability that I'm supposed to get from the department. And they said, "Nope. Sorry, you got fired before it came across our our desk." And I was like, "Yeah, but I put in the application before that." It's just you guys stalled it to the point where I got fired and then it came across your desk. And now you tell me you can't handle it because it's I'm fired now because it came across your

[1:21:38] desk when it was fired. Like it was it's just craziness. So I'm pensionless, you know, um I'm financially broken. I'm trying to recover back. My wife had to work now. Um You know, you and I are in the same We're in the same boat here. I lost my pension. Um my friends walked away from me. Lost my freedom. In the end, I lost my family. Uh there's almost no upside. I mean, I

[1:22:09] And I know you'll agree with me on this. There's almost no upside. The upside is you know you did the right thing. You know in your heart that you're the good guy. They're the bad guys. It's the system that's corrupt. But there's no there's no getting around the fact that it could take decades to rebuild what you lost. Yeah. Yeah. So losing my family wise like I

[1:22:42] almost even to this day, even even now, like it's on rocky ground. Sure. Sure. >> Uh the financial burden it it hinders a lot. Um my wife, she's she's from China. So she's not Americanized and stuff like that. So thank god. Like I think it a uh if I had an American wife, like she would have left me a long time ago, right? But um you know in in our culture it's like we don't really believe in divorce like that,

[1:23:13] right? We we try to stick it through thick thick and thin, you know, and we you know, we help each other. I I speak to a lot of whistleblowers. Even like when uh when the NYPD cops the that was arrested for being a Chinese spy. Right. >> And then Yes. >> he was he was put in federal prison for 6 months in solitary where they tried to make him take a deal. And then he end up saying no. And then they end up dropping the charges and since then they didn't go. And you know, I speak to him and him and his wife like, you know, also like going

[1:23:44] through it. It's it's hard. It's very hard. Um yeah. Broken financially and stuff like that. The only thing The only upside is yes, I did the right thing. Yeah, that's it. Right. >> You did the right thing. >> Um but now the question is do you believe in God? Do you believe in a higher force? And if so, like I I I believe in in a higher force. Uh you know, the whole is is he called God or whatever? I don't know what he's called, but I do believe

[1:24:14] there is a higher force, a higher energy, like karma, um you know, the laws of the universe that you just can't deny, right? And I ask myself why? Why you allow this happen to me if I did the right thing? You know, like where's their karma? Yeah. What's going on? It'll come. It'll take time. It'll take time. But you know, I blew the whistle Yeah I blew the whistle in 2007. I got arrested in 2012. I went to prison

[1:24:46] in 2013. Got out in 2015. My life was in shambles. But here we are 11 years later and the bad guys now are facing grand juries and facing felony charges. And now it's going to be their turn. So there really is such a thing as karma. Before we go on to our next question, I want to give you a word from one of our sponsors. I want to talk about something that really matters to me. That's medical freedom and being able to make your own health care decisions. That's why I'm proud to partner with All Family

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[1:25:50] today. Go to allfamilypharmacy.com/john and use my code john10 to get 10% off your order. That's allfamilypharmacy.com/john promo code j o h n 10. When I was in prison and I started seeing you know, all those news come out and all that stuff and they started getting indicted after I started, you know, um I guess you call it praying, right? >> Yeah. You know.

[1:26:20] A lot of stuff started coming out. And I just sit back and I laugh. And I go, "Haha." You know, I told you the truth will come out. Yep. >> And it does. And >> It does. >> [clears throat] >> But thing is, you know I used to want to shed more light to it. I'm hoping that, you know, people will will hear what's going on and actually good people that are, you know, in the department still and actually good people that are in government or whatever that they will care enough and be brave enough to actually want to do something

[1:26:51] and, you know, ask you know uh people like us to help them reform it and change it so it doesn't happen to anybody else. That's it. That's why we have to keep up the fight. As hard as things are, that's exactly why we have to keep up the fight. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, like so now that's why I started my own podcast and, you know, I also um I work I do like community stuff, food pantries and helping people and just you know, just continue helping people

[1:27:22] out there and one day I'll I'll run for office again and then, you know, hopefully I get in a position of power where I could introduce a bill to actually make sure that this doesn't happen to anybody else, right? So like I said, I work with Serpico. Serpico Serpico put me in contact with the Government Accountability Project, Tom Devine and everybody. They represented me as well. Yeah, so Tom Devine was actually going to put in So get get this timing, right? So now people are like, "It sounds too perfect where you might have been set up, right?" And

[1:27:53] you know I was working with Tom Devine and we were about to put in a federal lawsuit against the NYPD. I foiled the NYPD for my stuff. And 2 weeks later I that incident happened and I get arrested. Yeah, that sounds like a setup. Right? >> Yeah, that's a setup. >> find out also that the Commissioner Caban, right? Under his administration under the Adams administration is when I got fired extra fast. Right? Then you

[1:28:25] find out Caban is actually facing federal charges for the same kind of corruption that I arrested these people for and that I was trying to expose. And the nightclub that a hap- the incident happened was one of the nightclubs that Caban was extorting. Unbelievable. >> by Steven, um tell us about your podcast. Where can people hear it? Where can they uh they get involved and listen to it? >> It's right here on YouTube. Um it's System Unfiltered.

[1:28:57] Uh you could just or you could look at my website stevefornewyork.com s t e v f o r n e w y o r k.com. And it has all my social links there, you know. Excellent. >> yeah, you got to keep the fight going. Hopefully, you know, there's some good people that will see it. And you know, hopefully uh I know a lot of people are saying things about Mandamian stuff, but I think it's too early to judge. Um I would hope that he would, you know, want to make some real changes and stuff. >> Yeah, I sure hope so. >> Think corruption. Well, thanks for joining us, man, and very, very best of

[1:29:28] luck. I know exactly what you're going through. Yeah. Forge those alliances with the likes of Tom Devine and people at the Government Accountability Project. There are people who are on your side and, you know, together we really can make changes. Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Thanks for being with us. That's why I wanted to come on the show cuz I know that, you you know, you you've been through the same thing. Yeah. Yeah, it's not easy. It's worth it in the end. What was funny is they use the same playbook. Yeah, they do. Against all of

[1:30:00] us. And they didn't just invent it. I mean, look at Serpico. Yeah. It's the same situation. >> It just doesn't change. For some reason, it's just I I don't know what it is. And it's just nobody When you when you cry out for help, it seems like it falls on deaf ears. All these people that are calling for accountability and stuff like that, they are the ones that ignore you the most. Yeah, you know, and it's the truth. >> it's just crazy. It's just It's the truth. Well, thanks for being with us. It's

[1:30:30] It's good to see you. Good to meet you. >> Thank you, John. Good to meet you, too. >> All the best. >> Hopefully we can talk. I look forward to it.