How Poverty, Pills, And Power Trap Eastern Kentucky | Ep. 374

How Poverty, Pills, And Power Trap Eastern Kentucky | Ep. 374

What happens when a community is boxed in by poverty, prescriptions, and power? Justin sits down with Nicole, who grew up between Chicago and Letcher County, to tell a raw story about Eastern Kentucky’s overlapping crises: the opioid wave that labeled people “pillbillies,” the collapse of coal that gutted livelihoods, and the local machines that decide who gets help, who gets punished, and who gets ignored. Her account starts with a teenage car crash and a lawyer who pressured her to take meds to keep a case alive—then widens to show how accidents, clinics, and courthouses form a pipeline that traps families for years.

We talk about stacked juries, cozy ties between doctors, attorneys, and inspectors, and how thin oversight lets quiet deals shape public outcomes. Nicole describes being followed, losing evidence, and watching witnesses fear for their lives. She connects dots between rehab incentives, CPS pressures, and rising utility costs that squeeze households while political insiders remain comfortable. Throughout, she returns to the human cost: parents losing kids, survivors of coercion and sex trafficking afraid to speak, and neighbors trying to hold on to dignity when the system seems to turn every struggle into leverage.

Yet there’s grit and a path forward. Nicole shares the practices that keep her steady—clean food, time outdoors, hobbies that reclaim control—and makes a clear case for action: recruit new local candidates, scrutinize board seats and contracts, support independent journalism, and insist on unbiased investigations. We also address the Letcher County sheriff-judge shooting as a flashpoint that exposed deeper fractures in trust and accountability. If you care about criminal justice reform, rural health, Appalachia, and community resilience, this conversation offers context, names the patterns, and invites all of us to demand better.

If this moved you, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review with one action you’ll take to support accountability where you live.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome And Scope Of The Story

1:35 Nicole’s Roots And Culture Shock

2:22 From Opioids To “Pillbillies” Stigma

3:28 Doctors, Lawyers, And Controlled Economies

5:02 Coal, Injuries, And Legal Pipelines

6:35 Car Wreck At 14 And Forced Meds

8:10 Courts, Loopholes, And Local Power

10:50 Roads, Accidents, And Attorney Networks

13:20 Retaliation, Missing Oversight, And Media

15:45 Rehab Industry And Protected Players

18:20 Witness Intimidation And Fear

21:10 Trust Erosion In Law Enforcement

23:40 Federal Distrust And Surveillance Lists

27:00 Coping, Gut Health, And Resilience

29:20 Organizing, Local Politics, And Rates

32:15 Leaving Kentucky And A Call For Accountability

35:20 Two-Tier Justice And Public Cases

38:20 Children, CPS, And Cycles Of Harm

40:45 Key Takeaways And Letcher County Shooting

45:10 Closing, Next Steps, And Outreach

#EasternKentucky #PovertyAwareness #MentalHealthMatters #AddictionRecovery #SocialJustice #EconomicInequality #CommunityEmpowerment #RuralChallenges #SubstanceAbusePrevention #AppalachianVoices #HealthcareAccess #LocalSolutions #PolicyChangeNow #BreakingTheCycle #VoicesOfTheUnderserved #justiceforsurvivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices374

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Scope Of The Story
• 1:35 Nicole’s Roots And Culture Shock
• 2:22 From Opioids To “Pillbillies” Stigma
• 3:28 Doctors, Lawyers, And Controlled Economies
• 5:02 Coal, Injuries, And Legal Pipelines
• 6:35 Car Wreck At 14 And Forced Meds
• 8:10 Courts, Loopholes, And Local Power
• 10:50 Roads, Accidents, And Attorney Networks
• 13:20 Retaliation, Missing Oversight, And Media
• 15:45 Rehab Industry And Protected Players
• 18:20 Witness Intimidation And Fear
• 21:10 Trust Erosion In Law Enforcement
• 23:40 Federal Distrust And Surveillance Lists
• 27:00 Coping, Gut Health, And Resilience
• 29:20 Organizing, Local Politics, And Rates
• 32:15 Leaving Kentucky And A Call For Accountability
• 35:20 Two-Tier Justice And Public Cases
• 38:20 Children, CPS, And Cycles Of Harm
• 40:45 Key Takeaways And Letcher County Shooting
• 45:10 Closing, Next Steps, And Outreach

Transcript

Speaker: 0:02

Hey everyone, it's Justin, Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us on our TV show podcast episode. Today, uh, we have a powerful episode coming to you. Uh, thank you for watching and listening. We're close to a hundred countries, a thousand cities across the world, uh besides the United States of America. So thank you for uh making our show a show that is uh one that you want to see, one you want to listen to, and we appreciate uh uh today's uh another powerful episode. Uh our our guests and cole were gonna be diving into um some of the um well I'll let her talk about the specific words, but uh down in down in Kentucky, Letcher County uh area, Appalachian of uh what uh she has seen and witnessed and trying to help get get the get the word out even more uh share with as many people know and hopefully be able to uh move to the direct direction to uh get real help, unbiased help. Um, and so we want to introduce Nicole. Thank you for joining us on the show.

Speaker 1: 1:31

Thank you for having me.

Speaker: 1:33

You're welcome. Well I will just open up the floor to you about uh what you want to uh uh talk about, uh about the the area that you you live in, you come from kind of the Midwest, uh, and and now you find yourself uh kind of smack dab in uh one of the uh a controversial area of the country at this time.

Speaker 1: 2:04

Well, um my family has been in Kentucky for generations, but I was born in Chicago, so I moved, migrated down to this area when I was a teenager. Um this place is very different than anywhere else in the country. Right around the time that we relocated, you had uh the situation with the opioid crisis. It was when it was kicking kicking off. And even as a as a young child, I I was warned about pillbillies. That's what the the pharmaceutical industry turned this place into. And that's that term is very hurtful for me to see people in my area be be labeled that way. Um a lot of people in this area go to a doctor, whether it's for cholesterol medicine, whether it's for pain medicine, whether it's if you're in recovery for you know Suboxen, there are clinics everywhere, and there's nothing here. I mean, there is absolutely nothing here. Um, what little is in this area is very controlled. All of the money that flows into this place, the job opportunities, it is very, very controlled. And moving here was it was a culture shock. It was a culture shock. Um they frown upon herbal medication and they push you to do pills because they're all getting kickbacks, they're all working with legal teams, and um it's not just the doctors, the lawyers around here played a very large role in getting people addicted to drugs, and and this plays out like this will all make sense by the end, um, of how it left the community in such a vulnerable situation, and and it it tore down um each and every family was affected, and the outcome of that was people being exploited, extorted, just you know, like the survivors, Taya. Um, you know, I've seen the retaliation, and and we will get there, but this is just how I seen things play out. Um this place has a lot of really good people, a lot of really good, strong people. You can't ask for no better people, and they're getting taken advantage of by attorneys, and so with the coal mines, you have these inspectors who are getting paid off. These workers in the coal mine are getting injured, and who are they running to? Lawyers who are the inspectors friends with, and later, you know, end up playing a role in political positions, these same inspectors. So you've got people going to the doctor for that. Um, the roads around here are very treacherous, very curvy. If you've never been to eastern Kentucky, well, let me tell you, my boyfriend's from Texas, and and we've got multiple RVs. He bought one for off-roading just for the suspension because the roads are awful here. Um, and there's a lot of hills. So you can only imagine when there's car accidents, they're pretty bad. These attorneys, from my experience, you know, they tell you, Oh, you have to go to this doctor, and and they're all in bed with these doctors, they're married to these doctors and have you know extended relationships with them. And like me, I was 14 years old and I got into a car accident. Someone hit us head on. And funny enough, uh, Johnson and Johnson law firm, who played a part in the Purdue Pharma settlement for Oxycotton. Uh, they told me, hey, you failed your last drug test. Like, I'm not taking that medication, it makes me feel awful. Yeah, I'm 14 years old. 14 years old, and this attorney is looking at me saying, You have to take your medicine, or we can't move forward with the lawsuit, and then you won't get your car fixed, you won't get your bills paid for, all of that will be left on you. Yeah, yeah. At that age, they were writing benzodiazepine, opiates, headache medication, which is bufenorphin, or not bufenorphin, it's like something for headaches, uh, another one. There's there's so many, and now you have all of those people who have been taken advantage of via the coal mines, these lawyers, these doctors, ended up in addiction, and it spiraled really fast, really fast. So, like that Mary Cutter song, you know, they just the the devil wore a lab coat, we didn't think about it. You you're supposed to trust your doctor, you ain't supposed to trust your lawyer, but you know, they're liars, not lawyers, in my opinion. And I've seen when you do go to court, it's not based on actual legal representation. There's a lot of loopholes. This commonwealth runs very the the court system is different from anything else that I've seen. That's first Chicago, Texas, Washington, DC. And when they get when they get you in their system, it gets really dark. They extort people, they'll sign, like I've seen them find sign bogus arrest warrants to help people out, do favors, and just as long as you you know someone, you can you can get out of anything as long as you've got enough money and enough um political sway. Um and that's crushed this community because it's like the but there's a lot of good people who um who are facing massive injustice, and then like this behavior has gone on for decades, decades. Um, you know, there there's stories that come out where private bars down below stores where you know judges and lawyers and their kids and stuff are hanging out, where there's you know, a man does pump and dump schemes and gets in trouble for giving minors alcohol, and a model comes forward saying they were trying to groom us. Uh, the story doesn't get told in the entirety of it because there's nobody to really do investigations to help people who come forward and say, Hey, these are the people that were there, because it's a network that protects itself at the detriment of its own people. Um they what I've noticed is uh if there's any help, like for iB gain treatment, natural solutions, they pushed back on that. Big pharma has a grip on this place, and a lot of these lawyers and judges are very well known to trade cocaine for representation, have to go to rehab in the middle of court, and your case gets pushed off, and then they end up becoming a judge. Yeah, it's stuff like that that takes place not just in Letcher County but eastern Kentucky as a whole. Um, the cases that I have to hear on a daily basis are absolutely heartbreaking. And um, I I thank you for for letting me just openly talk about this. Um, there's content creators in my area that I don't trust because I know how this place is, it's wallering in poverty thanks to the coal mines. All of those jobs are gone, all the all of the truckers, like the population decline has been significant, not just from overdoses, which is bad, but from just people moving out of the area. I find that a lot of people deal with medical malpractice, extortion, and they get so beat down and they can't figure out why the system is um is screwing them over, and uh, you know, these same people are over our education. They're you know, why why do the jailers work hand in hand with the uh the department of education? Because it's almost like a pipeline, it really is. Um there's no with these small communities, there's no little to no oversight. Um, and they've just been kind of conditioned to believe what these doctors have continued to tell them, and um small businesses don't survive. Um, and then you have these men in power who are obviously grooming, and then you start getting invited, whether it's for like a modeling opportunity or like with Taya, one of the survivors, they're like, Hey, come, I'll teach you how to do a deposition because that is a good position to have because you will earn money, and it is a you know, you don't have to worry about getting laid off there, it's very consistent. So, um, you get girls who get lured, like, yeah, we'll we'll give you a job, we'll teach you how to do a deposition, and then they end up sleeping with these attorneys, judges, and stuff, and then you know, they feel used, abused, and it there's no mental um like there there's they say that there's mental help, mental health help around here, but there's not. I see we're we're dealing with a mental health crisis, and all they're doing is pushing more prescription medication, and it's like it's not helping, it's only harming, and it makes it extremely easy to exploit the community, and anybody that really speaks out against them, you will get retaliated against if you if if you go out to a bar and you get roofied by someone who has political ties to the governor, you think that they're going to do an investigation? No. No, and that was the that's pretty much the status quo for that place where the sheriff and the judge and all of them were were at having lunch before like the shooting happened. That little bar and grill is known for really bad happenings. My husband lost his freedom going over there because he got into a fight with the head of probation and parole's uh son. I think his uncle was also uh a judge, very politically connected to all of the corrupt figures who these women are saying um exploited them and coerced them into sex trafficking. And I know how dangerous they are. These women do have a reason to be afraid, they uh stack juries, they'll let people on a jury that literally signed a petition saying keep the keep the case here so they can have control and then say, Oh, I didn't know nothing about it. So I mean, the the the trial being moved and it's it's a good move, but I don't think that there's really going to be a fair trial. These evil people in the court system will send private investigators and confidential informants that want to get out of trouble, just like the women who were doing it for had to have sexual favors with them just in order to, you know, not go to jail, are the same people and they're putting those people up to harassing, stalking, drugging. I've seen it, it has happened to me just for investigating, looking into some of these crimes. I almost lost my life. No one cared, not one single person in my community. They tried to make it look like it was all on me because everybody around here has a drug problem, right? They're all just drug addicts, so they're not credible witnesses. But these people are being pushed into clinics like the rehabilitation clinics that are ran by people who used to sell large quantities of drugs and now they've changed their lives around doing peer support specialists, but the drugs still keep flowing. Certain people are protected, and more people are being pushed into the rehabs, and they're forced to deal with these disgusting men who have control over their lives who have been on a power trip for so long that they know that they can get away with anything. And um, with as far as Mickey Stein's, I pray, I pray for his family because even if they do get witnesses, let me tell you how it went with my husband in his case. Our witnesses ended up dead, one right after the trial, one right after he got his subpoena. The girl that he was that they were going to testify against was connected to Harold Bowling, the one that Hippoli Crime said is a good man. Um, but she's married to a police officer now, KSP. Kind of makes you understand why Mickey didn't trust the Kentucky State Police because it's a network, people go missing all the time. And you know, they take away your kids and they they keep bringing up bogus charges just to try to keep you in their system, you know. No, what like if you serve your time like Taya did, and then you get out and you have to be on probation until 2099, and then pay pay child support on a kid that's 20 some years old. There's my baby right there, so you know, I and I've watched this happen. I I found out about the whole situation in Letcher County because it happened to my neighbor, it happened to my neighbor, and I remember everyone was talking about how this young girl had to was sleeping with one of the deputies, and they were upset with her. I was like, excuse me, you weak-hearted MFers are mad at this young woman when this guy is holding freedom over top of her head, her kids, and you all don't have enough cojones to stand up and do the right thing. Um, I got into it with Kentucky State Troopers, asked them about the sex trafficking, I asked them about the missing people, they told me they knew about it, gaslighted me, and you know, I faced retaliation. I had people down at the bottom of my hill trying to keep me silent, two wellness checks to say that uh I wanted to hurt myself and others, and that was just for speaking out because I had been investigating what happened and what was going on in Letcher County about a year before the sheriff ever shot the judge, there was a lot of really dirty, dirty dealings, and um, you know, the community needs to stand up and uh and demand demand some answers. You know, you're not gonna everybody's gonna have their own opinion, and just because something sounds crazy, don't assume that that person who might be on drugs, because a lot of them are still being forced to take to box and medication to be in programs in order to graduate and get out of the system, like they're seeing a lot of strange things happening in the rehabs with drug court, and I mean, everyone's life matters, no one is better than anyone. Um, and I think that a lot has been brought to the surface, but a lot of people are missing, are not getting the whole picture, and it's because people are trying to um establish narratives and um you know uh allegiances, I guess, like siding with Mickey, siding with the judge, siding with this person. And Mickey was actually um there when the night when my husband went to jail at that bar that they all hung out. He threw away evidence of the other party so they didn't get in trouble, but I don't hold that against him because I've heard nothing but good things from the people that I know. And uh I know that a lot of people are like he was paranoid, he was in psychosis. They tried to say that to me when they were, you know, sending wellness checks, trying to intimidate me, so on and so forth. I've got video footage of someone at the bottom of my hill who made my car alarm go off. You think that those political figures don't have enough ties to get a key fob? Have someone scan your your VIN number. It's like a like a Stozzy style like operation that's that takes place, and they're like, Oh, you're just crazy. No, I heard Mickey said that he felt like somebody was down the street. Now, when they want their secrets kept, my you know, my first initial was oh no, when the sheriff shot the judge. They they turned on him like they've been doing everyone else. The truth's finally gonna come out. Uh and I I really hope and pray that the truth does come out.

Speaker: 22:41

Yeah, yeah, it's really uh disheartening to hear about uh these situations because, like you said, to some people they go, oh well, this is wild, this is conspiracy, but when it's actually happening and when you've experienced it yourself, and you have somebody down at the bottom of the hill that is setting your car alarm off, not to mention following you where you go, where Ty goes.

Speaker 1: 23:21

Uh it's it's gotta be, I can't even imagine the the emotional uh added stress that that you have to have to make sure that I know you're driving 100% every little thing because somebody can pull you over and then oh as soon as I flew back from Texas, uh there was a from from Floyd County to Pike, I got pulled over and I got a ticket. I already paid it. I'm not gonna, you know, not pay a ticket, but but it's just like if you think that in in today's day and age that they can't track you by your phone, that they can't hack your your stuff, I've I've had evidence in files, and those files completely go missing. Um the fact you know, with the key fob, them they can put stuff in your car. They can you know, tie and then woke up to slice tires. I think that if I didn't spend so much time um at Camp Lejeune with my ex-fiance, like I probably wouldn't be as prepared. But I mean, you start coming around my house. This is Kentucky, you're there's probably gonna be some booby traps. There's probably gonna, you know, we got guns around here, big ones. Uh but it's it's like you shouldn't even have to do that. Police won't do anything. I've called the police, they don't they don't respond to help, they're only there to make things worse. I haven't seen them solve a missing person's case or a murder case or anything. You can give them information, they won't do it. I would like a thorough investigation to know what in the hell is going on. I've myself went to the attorney general and begged for someone. They saw the Commonwealth Attorney's handling it. Commonwealth attorney is Judge Kevin Mullen's brother-in-law. What do you mean? Like, like his like they're not gonna cover for their own. Like, do you really it's it's impossible? It is impossible to get anything done. I feel so so sorry for the women who are terrified to come forward, they're terrified. I don't blame them, but nobody should have to, you know, take a mirror underneath their car to make sure that there's not a a an air tag following you. So but you know, just know that if we do go down, we tried our best. We tried our best to get it out. Like uh, I wouldn't be surprised if something happened because with the one young lady, Jennifer Hill, she uh they say that she overdosed, and then Ben Fields, you know, um charges got dropped. So I know how they do. When you've got people who are on drugs, it's not hard to send somebody there to give them a hot shot, and that's an increasingly it scares me because I am hearing stories from people saying that some of these confidential informants are are giving people bad drugs on purpose, they're allowed to get away with it. Kentucky State Police and uh the DOT already said last year, we're if somebody had history with drug abuse, we're not going to investigate. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: 26:54

So yeah, it's I it it just blows me away. Uh who do you think uh I don't say like in the utopian world, uh the the feds, like do you trust them? What would it be, you know, to come in, you know, especially if you have the governor that's involved as well.

Speaker 1: 27:22

That you kind of no, I I don't I don't trust the feds, I don't trust the attorney general. Um I've been put on the quiet skies list. My my boyfriend was at January 6th. He wasn't a part of any violence or nothing. He was standing on the grass, there were kids holding, you know, America flags, people just cracking jokes, letting the ambulance and cops go by. But we were always afraid that they were gonna pick him up. And when if we went to like the court hearings with our friends who got nabbed, um when you come into contact with those people, the feds do. They'll they'll they'll target you. I got put on quiet skies. I was like followed through the airport. Yes, we have a we have a problem. We the federal government in the Fed just in the federal government, period. They're they're not doing anything for us, I don't think. Um the more I research, the more like I don't trust the FBI, especially the one that's in Kentucky that has an Infoguard center. Uh those Infoguard centers are um used for counterterrorism, and they're not really helping with our counterterrorism. They just opened up the border and led a bunch of people who are unvetted right on in. So and they put me on a list, like I'm on a I'm a federal, I'm on a federal list. I mean, I haven't seen the the quiet skies little symbol in a minute since since Trump was in office, but what's that mean?

Speaker: 29:04

What's a quiet sky?

Speaker 1: 29:06

Is that not uh it's it's like you get flagged, like you could be a suspected terrorist. Oh you get followed by TSA.

Speaker: 29:19

Oh man. Yeah, that's yeah, that's not that's not okay. I I'm glad that you're being brave and strong and standing up and and sharing your your story because uh things haven't been done the correct way, they aren't being done, and the only way to hopefully get things going in the right direction is to put pressure on with stories and truths and uh What's actually uh occurring, and and and then like you said, it you can only do so much, so uh that it's just gotta be uh how's how's your mental health of going through all the different things yourselves and then when you're you're helping others and how how are you doing?

Speaker 1: 30:28

Like I've dealt with so much disappointment that I don't I don't really get my hopes up and I don't I don't really get down and and out. I notice um I think my mental health is much better than most people because your your mood and your your mental health has a lot to do with your gut biome. And I I don't eat, I don't I don't shop around here. I don't shop at Food City or Walmart or or any of that stuff. Um I go to homesteads and get all natural products. Um I travel a lot, so I'm eating all natural food, and that right there makes such a big difference. Um I I I enjoy shooting guns. Uh that takes off a lot of stress. I like to hula hoop. I like to garden. I just stay away from the devices as much as possible. But it's it's really hard to hear a lot of stories about injustice and how people were hurt, and it's I'm not okay. Like, but you know, there's it's almost like I've been traumatized by being followed and all of that stuff. I'm just in fight mode, like at this point, like uh I don't let it get to me.

Speaker: 31:46

That's good. Uh yeah, like my mental health kind of uh the same thing, kind of feel like in that mode all the all the time, and uh you it I don't say it's a price you have to pay.

Speaker 1: 32:06

Uh but it's something that I mean it's like once your eyes are open, you can't look away. Once you know the truth and your eyes are open, it's just like this should be you know, something simple, something that should be fixed, you know, no no problem. And I think that um something that the community can do, find someone to run for office. There are a bunch of people who just announced their candidacy. Don't let the same nepotism control you and control um this system. Get gets get people who are, you know, like like me. I I know uh one candidate who's running for Senator Mitch McConnell seat. Um he dealt with like the quiet skies and um he had health issues and couldn't wear like the mask. He was a veteran. Um, and he just kind of like stood up during COVID, and that's how he got activated into politics. And I'm starting to see more people in the community want to step up, but we just need we just need to elect better people, and we need to be more involved, don't be so dismissive. But I think uh it's really hard because people around here they're they're just struggling to pay their bills, they're not really paying attention to what's going on, they barely have time to do anything because the constant raise uh or rise in like our water rates, and that's connected to our political figures, and you know, um in Letter County, like Angie Hatton, she's connected to the to AEP, and I mean somebody should really check into like the campaign financing and how she's on that board and stuff, you know. People need to look into stuff like that and say, hey, you're screwing us over on our on our power rate, and you're kind of getting money from these companies to screw us over, but they're putting this person out as the person that's supposed to help and fix it. Like, I think independent journalism is uh is on the rise, and more people are you know working remotely, so they don't have to uh stay in one place or um or you know, like their jobs can't be held over their head. I I worked at a company, they didn't like my political views, so they they messaged my boss trying to get me fired. Yeah, that's happened a couple of times, actually.

Speaker: 34:44

Do you see yourself wanting to run for office someday?

Speaker 1: 34:48

Or uh I've been asked to run for office uh a couple of different positions, but I would never I I I would never want to, not here in Kentucky. I I love this place, but I'm I'm moving to Texas with my boyfriend, starting a ministry and going to do good. You know, what they use for bad, I'm gonna try to use for good. But um, you know, uh unless some some people wake up and start demanding accountability, this place is going to get worse. It already is getting worse. Um, if people don't wake up and demand accountability or change, it's gonna end up like California, Arizona, and some of these other states that um like New York, some of these other places that have fallen. Um if you're gonna lose more more parents are gonna lose their children. There's you know a really bad problem with CPS. They've got signs all over the place. Uh, do you want to adopt? Like adopting kids out, won't give family members um money to help take care of children whose parents are addicted to drugs or in these programs, but they'll pay foster parents, so it's almost like this this system is it's it needs to be completely torn down and and and redone. You need to just clean every single member in Congress out except for a few, you just clean all of these courthouses out. I mean, if they want us to have master, but we need surveillance on them, we need to know every aspect about them, um, because a lot of them are involved in crimes, and Kentucky is the worst for it. I don't see the kind of like there's corruption and then there's Kentucky corruption, and they're not the same. It's like living in a communist country, yeah. That's exactly what it is, yeah, and it's like they've got everyone medicated and just asleep, so they're they're not able to do anything, and they it's it's just a sad situation. Purdue pharmaceutical destroyed this place, and um I don't see any of that money going towards uh rebuilding back anyone's life, and a lot of people that's what I was wondering is if yeah, everyone, whether it was you, your brother, your mother, like everyone has someone who has struggled with addiction in this area because of the medical malpractice that yeah, wow. Well, I it's like the the it's like the ghetto.

Speaker: 37:39

Yeah, it sure is. It it across the board, yeah. It's it's it's incredible from the medical to the legal to uh the counselors and everybody's it's like that web of wherever you go, it's like you can't get can't get away from it, even though when you're doing the right thing, trying to do the right thing, it's kind of like wait a minute, like and is there something wrong with me? Like everybody is doing the opposite.

Speaker 1: 38:20

Yeah, you start you do. I I've done that. Like uh, I feel like I almost had a mental breakdown trying to because once that the stuff started happening with the sex trafficking and people were going missing, the police weren't doing anything. I mapped it out and started to connect people, and then it started to connect to different different institutions, um, and then politicians, and you know, that was that's the whole reason I got politically um active was because I just wanted to see change. I was like, the same corrupt methods aren't helping. We just lost like 20,000 of our population because people are moving away, and then the rest of us are dealing with a two-tier weaponized justice system. And here I am seeing, you know, in my county, there was an attorney, like the he might have been the Commonwealth attorney, Donald Deskins, literally murdered his wife. And I had to see him waving around at Food City like some politician, and then still just murdered his wife, and then like his brother-in-law, like same family that's like married in Howard Keith Hall, just got found not guilty of mail fraud, as you know, having his having his nephew and other people on the payroll and uh using money for political campaigns funding, and it's just like, oh no, they didn't do anything. And people are cheering for it. And I'm like, so they're allowed to murder their wives, they're allowed to commit mail fraud, screw over the taxpayers, write bogus warrants and ruin people's lives, take their kids away, play favoritism, and that you know, it's it left such an imbalance that uh you've got a lot of good people who are getting their kids stolen from them. People use use kids as chess pieces around here. And I completely understand why Taya is terrified, you know, like when they try to get your their hooks into your kids, you know they the kids don't know what they're getting themselves into because the people who are in our institutions that we're supposed to trust, our kids believe them more than they believe us, you know, sometimes then and then the cycle of abuse continues. So yeah.

Speaker: 40:42

So what would be the I I know we talked about a lot of topics, but what would be some of the kind of key takeaways that you you would want somebody if they just tune in at the end, or uh if they yeah, if they tune in at the end and want to have a little bit of a summary, uh can just go over a couple couple bullet points that uh encompass what what we've talked about.

Speaker 1: 41:14

So because how Rogers is the worst congressman Kentucky has ever had, and I mean he's worse than Mitch McConnell, that's saying a lot. Um his district is wallering in poverty while they hand their nonprofit institutions hand money over, hand over fist, has caused the population to waller in prop poverty for so long that those that have political connections have used their web to intimidate, silence, um, commit medical malpractice, insurance fraud. Um, they've stolen land, property. The list goes on and on, and there it's such a dark web. So many people are involved that um anyone who tries to do the right thing, um they face backlash, stalking, harassment, lawsuits. Um, they they will set you up. Um, they will murder you, they will murder your friends, your family. If they can't get to you, they will harm someone next to you. The situation in Letcher County where the sheriff shot the judge, we were hoping the truth would come out. And um they they're doing a good job at burying it. Um, people have to look when they're like, Where's the evidence? Well, let me just tell you, you know, there was one one content creator, Hubley Crimes, right next to the judge's house. There was a trailer that was on fire. You think they weren't burning evidence? I went over there and caught video footage of them having uh a camouflaged helicopter going up and into haulers, getting out evidence. They they let them get the evidence out, and they're trying to frame the the sheriff. This is just my opinion, and you know what they've been doing to people like Taya and and so many others they tried to do it to the sheriff because of that of that civil lawsuit where the women came forward um against Deputy Ben Fields, and a lot of people lost their lives. Ben Fields had uh not Ben Fields, but Mickey Steins had every right to fear for his wife and daughter's um safety. And um as you've seen, you have people that try to infiltrate their circles and manipulate uh the narrative, uh it's very complicated, but I've heard nothing but good things about Sheriff Stein's. I think he's raised a wonderful daughter. Um, I hope to see him come out on top of this situation because if it wasn't for him, a lot of what I'm saying, I wouldn't be able to say. Um a lot of people are being retaliated against. We've got one detective in here that's actually looking at things. We've begged the attorney general, we've we've gone to every single place that could possibly help us. We don't trust the sheriff's department, we don't trust city police, and we don't trust Kentucky State troopers. You know, we don't. I've seen them harass young young teenagers and literally pit them and them die right there on the side of the road. We don't trust Kentucky State troopers, troopers like that become detectives, and those detectives come out for people like me, Taya, and anybody who speaks out. You see what I'm saying? So um, Godspeed to the sheriff. Um, I hope that more people um see that the victims are struggling with and dealing with retaliation. So were those of us who were speaking out. Um but I appreciate everybody that's taking the time to to listen to the story. And that's that's really like all how I can just sum it up because it I could talk about it. I've done years and years worth of research, so don't really want to say too much because you can't you don't want to throw out names out there and get certain people involved or retaliated against, and you know, just pray for the victims. Um, this is coercion, it is sex trafficking. These men are in the wrong. We're sick and tired of these dirty perverts getting away with everything, and hopefully the truth comes out. And the reason that it's it's capable is because this district is wallering in poverty, and you don't have um good people in office. Um, your town will go to hell in a handbasket.

Speaker: 45:48

Yeah, well, thank you for being again so brave to step out and and share. Uh, it's important to uh to get the word out to as many people that uh hopefully some honest people come in and help uh clean up the the area. Uh but it is, you know, when you have people that you said uh making copies of the keypop and doing things, it's like do I feel safe where I'm even at right now? Like what's what's going on?

Speaker 1: 46:28

Um and yeah, we uh I mean when when you when you just go poking around looking for answers and reaching out for help, and the police are following you through multiple counties trying to intimidate you, just hoping to pull you over. Uh, that says a lot about um this entire situation and why nobody is coming forward. They're being intimidated, and it's coming from law enforcement. There really does need to be a like a an internal investigation, most definitely.

Speaker: 47:03

Absolutely. And we're uh we reach out to uh how do you say say her name, Lila uh McGee. Lila Stein's yeah, yeah. We uh we reach out to her, and I know she's got a lot of a lot of things going on, and uh we're we're hoping to have her on to be able to share her uh her story uh to uh again get um just get that awareness out of let people know. Uh there's two sides every story, and all all those sides uh that unfortunately are happening are are bad, and so we need to get more people like like you and Taya and Brandy and individuals that uh have been involved that have had specific examples of what's what's occurred because it's it's one thing to just say, Oh, I don't like this and I don't like that. But when you have specific examples, it's hard to hard to argue. People can say it's conspiracy theory theory, uh, but you you know, deep down when something happens to your to you, what uh what's actually occurred.

Speaker 2: 48:19

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 48:20

Well, and so far, everything that I suspected when this shooting first happened, I was accurate about everything, even though there were people who were trying to change the narrative. I mean, those of us who have dealt with the retaliation, we know. We know. So I'm looking forward, I hope, to hear from Lila Stein, see kind of what was going on. I I pray for everyone that was involved, even Judge Kevin Mullen's family. Yeah, this is just a very tragic situation that I hope people can learn from and you know make the community safer. Yes, so nobody has to deal with this, but I mean, I'm Team Mickey Stones, yeah.

Speaker: 49:03

And we'll have we're definitely gonna have some follow-up shows. This is just the the first of many that uh we're having with Nicole for our viewers and listeners. Uh, we're grateful to be able to have her on and and share uh the awful events and experiences that she's had to to go through and still go through. So if anybody is out uh is able to help in an authority position that really wants to turn things around and and help, uh there are people like Nicole and Lila and Taya that uh wanna just want things to be run in a fair uh a fair way that there's uh an unbiased manner, but our constitutional rights are awarded to us.

Speaker 1: 50:00

You know, our our constitutional rights have been stripped away, basically, with this system. So I just hope just hope for the best.

Speaker: 50:10

Yeah, well, thank you, Nicole. We'll see ya. We'll be in touch, obviously. We're gonna try to get this out, ASAP. Uh we'll get you we'll get you the links and then we'll do social posts. And uh I hope you have a good rest of your day and uh the family's uh LP.

Speaker 1: 50:27

Yeah, thank you so much.

Speaker: 50:29

You bet. Take care.

Speaker 1: 50:30

All right, bye.