I’M CONFUSED because when I was forming my businesses, one that has the capability to create over a hundred jobs and put Arizona on the map by having the world’s first of its kind award winning alcohol brand produced in the state. I knew it would come with a heavy price meaning ten years of hard work developing my formulas and turning them into an award winning name brand. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined going through the psychological challenges as I have because of it.

 

The Arizona Commerce Authority did not offer me any tax credits. I was told by people who constantly abused their power during recorded conversations that I would never get a license to distribute my brand. I was also told that because I applied for my alcohol wholesales license I was being investigated for previously breaking the law and would continue receiving subpoenas until wrongdoings were found.

 

The thought of me having the intellect to build a spirits company that controls the distribution of its award winning cocktail brand is something they cannot fathom. If you’re a person of color and you start winning too much they change the rules for blazing new trails in the spirits industry and trying to create jobs. They decided to violate the (False Claims Act) by discrimination and engaging in unlawful tactics of intimidation to prevent me an “American citizen” from making a living by trying to stop me from obtaining my license. When their efforts failed and I still managed to get my license they had me falsely arrested at my home in front of my neighbors and jailed on trumped-up charges.

 

I AM HOPEFUL because I know that dreams are real I also know that anyone can do or achieve anything they put their mind to. As an entrepreneur who pursues his passions and chases his dreams with no excuses, I cannot nor will I let my dream die do to any obstacles. “Times Change I Believe Cocktails Should Too”. “The Time Is Now” for a new resource-rich luxury spirits brand not bound by the chains of corporate history or white supremacy to take advantage of the current state in the alcohol industry. No longer will I remain brainwashed by people in power and colored politicians who take backseats to what’s happening to us.

 

Being me the best way to predict my future was to create it because I realized a long time ago when someone gives you something, they can always take it away. In that context, you always remain vulnerable to those who control you. Slaves did not revolt so modern day people of color would have to beg someone to give them a better opportunity. The fact is, if you want something in a competitive world, you have to position yourself to go to battle and TAKE IT. Stand up, fight for what you believe in and don’t let anyone stop you just as I have and will continue to do. “You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.” ~ Booker T. Washington.

 

I have not broken any laws, the only thing I am guilty of is being fearless in the pursuit of my dreams. As evidence of my innocence, for my trial which was orchestrated I provided my attorney with emails, time stamped documents and many recorded exchanges that took place at the AZ Dept. Of Liquor, contradicting every one of the charges they have leveled against me. Including a recording about blackmail. It’s also a known fact they have most of the same information on file, but choose to conceal because they chose to work with the people who tried to blackmail me in the hopes of seeing me jailed to keep me out of the alcohol business. Which further goes to show “this was a campaign that began to ruin me professionally” by intentionally disrupting my business, slandering my name, violating my rights, all to mislead the courts to falsely arrest, falsely imprison and maliciously prosecute me. “Men lie, women lie, facts don’t.”

 

After a six yearlong investigation in an all-out effort to prevent the launch of my brand, not to mention, the 1 year and four months of being in court, for over six years my business was stonewalled. During my court proceedings, in an effort to find the one who could get the job done, my case was transferred to four different prosecutors.

 

What’s interesting from a legal perspective is in the end on 04/30/2015 all charges against me were precipitously dropped days before my trial (by jury). The reason given by the forth prosecutor on the case, for dropping the charges, was there was no likelihood of a conviction based on new evidence that surfaced. The ugly fact is there was no new evidence that surfaced, all evidence was known to have existed years before this “charade” began.

 

I want to be sure that everyone reading this article clearly understands, I never took any of the several plea bargains, the prosecutors offered, despite the threats of multiple years of imprisonment. For many the easy way out would be to take a plea verses facing years of being locked up, but that was not for me, I knew for a fact I did nothing wrong, and I knew the prosecutor had absolutely no evidence supporting the inch thick bogus police report, in addition to the secret file they have on me that lead to the three criminal charges and my arrest.

 

The truth of the matter is there was no likelihood of a conviction because I hadn’t committed a crime or done anything wrong. The powers that be who were behind this, did not think I would fight tooth and nail, they must of thought I would let them run all over me. The fact is all charges were dropped because their lies started to fall apart and whoever was put in charge of keeping up the lies forgot, when people tell lies, they have to keep making up a bunch of new lies to go with the first ones.

 

This was supposed to be an open and shut case. What went wrong? We all know, Arizona is a surveillance state data-collecting, processes surveillance is everywhere, wherever you turn, there are video cameras, traffic cameras, mall cameras, parking lot cameras, school cameras, bus and train cameras, restaurant cameras, drone cameras, and citywide camera networks that see everything. I ask am I that good at running my criminal enterprise that no one can catch me doing anything illegal even after six years of being investigated and having my business interrupted and my name slandered.

 

What appears to be clear is that even with tapping my phones and observing me for years they cannot find anything I have done illegal, without first making it up themselves. I am most certainly not the career criminal, as I’ve been referred, in their reports. What did they expect to find when they fabricated the story about me committing wrong doing in the first place? Little did they know, I grew up in hell and even then, I was not driven to crime by reason of Chicago’s tenement environment and the pressure of racial injustice! I have no felonies past or present, so why was I really arrested and charged for fake crimes I didn’t commit? I firmly believe it was all to keep me out of the alcohol business, remember being the brand owner and the distributor is a powerful position to have.

 

I am a firm believer that true justice can exist only within the parameters of equality. No one in America should have to go through what I went through for starting a business in America and the Arizona Department of Liquor’s perception that certain things are beyond people of color, or we shouldn’t be doing it is an extremist belief. Their shameful actions will always be remembered by me. I know, because my dream that is ten years in the making still lives within me, constantly striving to emerge. I refuse to be a victim. I will never stop fighting to end injustice. Because if people in power are allowed to become bullies, then America is in grave danger. On 06/08/2015 I meet with the U.S. Dept. of Justice Phoenix branch to file a complaint and to ask them to look into this matter for federal civil rights and other violations.

 

Nothing is more precious than the stories of people who chase their dreams and despite what some think my life and my dreams matter. Having had to battle for equality all my life, became such a normal occurrence that I almost forgot that I was a victim yet once again.

 

I am now a sworn enemy of institutional racism and racial oppression in Arizona, a most hateful place that serves to harm and demoralize people of color. My personal commitment and dedication is to make sure what happened to me happens to no one else by fighting, to bring change to the racism in this country that holds many of us back. And by exposing what goes on in Arizona as it relates to institutional racism and racial oppression by sharing my story through the NATLUXMAG online magazine, social media outlets and the book I am currently working on called “LIVE TO DREAM, DREAM TO LIVE” a story of false arrest, lies, and intimidation.

 

With all I’ve endured over the past six years in my pursuit of the “American Dream”, I remain unbreakable. When I look at the evolution of my experience in Arizona, injustice is always very prevalent and central to my experience. After seeing the lengths they went to try keeping me out of the alcohol business I am expressing my gratitude that there expectations have not been realized.

 

I am also aware that there are those in power who played a bigger role and are comfortable with my demise. A practices that has been going on for decades, unfortunately history books often erase this prosperous period in black history, never telling how racial oppression made it difficult for blacks to excel financially, sometimes even in their own communities. It is however unfortunate that there is so much corruption and self-righteousness in the “Arizona state run agencies.” While I accept that many sincerely hope for a more democratic Arizona abiding by the principle of procedural justice and the rule of law, the conduct of the Arizona Dept. Of Liquor and the prosecutor’s office tells a different story.

 

In addition if falsely trying to jail me was not enough, to justify extending my distress someone started rumors that my “award winning” alcohol brand and formulations were not mine with the expectation of putting the final nail in my coffin, to further disgrace me since they thought their lies would end my brand and send me off to jail.

 

Class is one thing that cannot be bought. Instead of trying to dispel the vicious rumors I responded simply by creating “The Naturell Challenge™” Writers Guild of America, West Registration Number: 1667201. A friendly competition open to professional mixologists who feel their skills are first-rate when it comes to mixology. The challenge, craft a better version of one of my interactive luxury cocktails on the spot. Mixologist can use any of the hundreds of alcohol brands and mixers at their disposal.

 

Whereas I will be limited to Naturell the world’s first intermixable luxury cocktails that consist of one brand, 50 blends, over 810 different luxury rum and vodka cocktail combinations that competes in “six of the eight spirits categories” which include Cocktails, Rum, Vodka, Whisky, Brandy, Cordials plus Champagne and Wine. The cocktails can even be evaluated via blind taste test by an independent panel. Should any one succeed they will have bragging rights and be acknowledged in my online magazine NATLUXMAG “Trend Setters and Taste Makers™.”

 

I also recently found out one of the people responsible for spearheading the assault against me and my brand padded my file so that whenever my license is ran during a traffic stop I come up looking like a danger to society, a career criminal. Making it almost certain that whenever and whoever stops me will have a perceived notion they have to deal with me in a aggressive manor which in most cases always leads down a path of no return. 

 

I witnessed this firsthand when I was stopped for an expired registration sticker. The tone in which I was spoken to was as if I just robbed a bank while driving an expensive luxury car. It was comical and at the same time I felt bad for this person who did not know what to think of me. I gave him no reason to continue his overbearing I’m the one in charge tone because I never said a word. At one point I could tell he was wondering why I was not angry for being stopped.

 

When I was asked for ID things took a turn for the better, once the officer noticed my engineer’s union card he began to speak to me like a human. I hate to wonder how things might have turned out if he didn’t notice my engineer’s union card. When it comes to padding my file I call it a biased use of enforcement one based on racial prejudice, a challenge to public trust, a legal abuse and a threat to the rule of law.