WEBVTT - Episode 6: A Sense of Order 0:00:15.411 --> 0:00:23.130 Pushkin previously on the China townstaing. 0:00:24.211 --> 0:00:28.611 When the verdict was coming in and the summations and 0:00:28.691 --> 0:00:33.611 rebuttals were happening, I was in intensive care with the 0:00:33.650 --> 0:00:34.211 new baby. 0:00:35.411 --> 0:00:37.891 One of the things that was so amazing to me 0:00:37.970 --> 0:00:43.011 about Johnny Yenie's he looks so young. Until you seem 0:00:43.011 --> 0:00:47.291 in person, you forget what a baby faced gangster could 0:00:47.331 --> 0:00:47.771 look like. 0:00:48.931 --> 0:00:51.251 It was, you know, a case that truly, if you 0:00:51.251 --> 0:00:54.611 didn't believe the cooperators, you didn't have enough evidence to 0:00:54.691 --> 0:00:55.771 convict the defendant. 0:01:00.091 --> 0:01:05.050 On Thursday, December tenth, nineteen ninety two, twelve jurors filed 0:01:05.090 --> 0:01:08.451 out of a small wood paneled courtroom in Brooklyn. They 0:01:08.450 --> 0:01:12.051 were about to begin to deliveing the seventeen federal criminal 0:01:12.131 --> 0:01:19.011 charges against Johnnyang. Among the charges that he'd coordinated the 0:01:19.051 --> 0:01:22.211 smuggling of heroin from Asia to the US via a 0:01:22.251 --> 0:01:26.651 bean sprout washing machine. Other charges were related to him 0:01:26.691 --> 0:01:31.171 smuggling heroin through mail packages, but the biggest count was 0:01:31.211 --> 0:01:37.251 the first one that Johnny Yang was quote the principal, administrator, organizer, 0:01:37.491 --> 0:01:42.571 or leader of these schemes, the so called mastermind count. 0:01:43.651 --> 0:01:46.331 If the jury decided that Johnny Yang was guilty of 0:01:46.331 --> 0:01:49.851 that he'd face a mandatory sentence of life in prison 0:01:50.331 --> 0:01:51.051 without pearl. 0:01:56.731 --> 0:01:59.491 You actually talked to one of the jurors, right, that's. 0:01:59.331 --> 0:02:03.171 My co reporter, shir Yu Wang. Yes, her name is 0:02:03.251 --> 0:02:05.691 Joan Cohen. She was twenty nine years old at the 0:02:05.731 --> 0:02:08.770 time and she was working on Wall Street for a 0:02:08.851 --> 0:02:09.611 JP Moore in. 0:02:10.171 --> 0:02:11.651 I got picked, and I was like, this is going 0:02:11.691 --> 0:02:14.011 to be kind of difficult because I'm going to have 0:02:14.050 --> 0:02:17.690 to commute from downtown Manhattan over to Brooklyn. 0:02:18.731 --> 0:02:20.131 What did she think of the trial? 0:02:20.731 --> 0:02:23.211 According to her memory, the jury was mostly white people, 0:02:23.251 --> 0:02:24.091 people like her. 0:02:24.931 --> 0:02:28.371 As a non Chinese speaking person. I was hoping that 0:02:28.451 --> 0:02:32.211 the interpreter was actually doing it correctly, Yeah, because I 0:02:32.251 --> 0:02:34.051 was a little concerned about that because what if they 0:02:34.091 --> 0:02:34.851 got something wrong. 0:02:35.651 --> 0:02:40.171 Yeah, that's that's a very fair concern, because I don't 0:02:40.171 --> 0:02:45.771 think that the None of the lawyers understood Chinese right now, 0:02:46.251 --> 0:02:47.411 not even a defense team. 0:02:47.611 --> 0:02:50.691 No, none of them did. And you know, Beryl said 0:02:50.691 --> 0:02:53.131 that she remembers that there is always more than one 0:02:53.371 --> 0:02:55.851 interpreter in the courtroom at the same time, so when 0:02:55.851 --> 0:02:58.650 one got tired, someone else could take over. But still 0:02:58.891 --> 0:03:02.531 Joan's worry about understanding correctly what these witnesses were saying, 0:03:02.611 --> 0:03:06.851 makes sense because the whole case hinged on the testimony 0:03:06.891 --> 0:03:10.731 of cooperators, right. And the other thing is, like pretty 0:03:10.811 --> 0:03:13.211 much everyone else in the world, she has a very 0:03:13.331 --> 0:03:16.451 vivid memory of one of the key cooperating witnesses. 0:03:16.691 --> 0:03:20.371 While of course she was like so pretty and so like, 0:03:21.091 --> 0:03:24.011 I just was like, I can't imagine her committee of crime. 0:03:24.211 --> 0:03:28.891 It was like so bizarre, Like I was surprised, honestly 0:03:29.011 --> 0:03:32.291 shocked that a woman would be involved in such unscrupulous behaviors. 0:03:32.651 --> 0:03:34.371 I guess I was a little sexist in the sense 0:03:34.411 --> 0:03:36.931 of like, why would she do this? 0:03:36.931 --> 0:03:38.171 This wasn't the last trial. 0:03:38.371 --> 0:03:41.411 This was Johnny's trial, So what did Joanne think about 0:03:41.451 --> 0:03:42.891 the evidence against Johnny? 0:03:43.331 --> 0:03:47.371 So the jury actually deliberated for a week, five days. 0:03:47.891 --> 0:03:50.691 We're talking about each count. Is he guilty of this? 0:03:50.771 --> 0:03:53.931 He might be guilty of this the lesser account, but. 0:03:54.131 --> 0:03:55.291 Is he the ring leader? 0:03:55.411 --> 0:03:55.651 Really? 0:03:55.971 --> 0:03:56.291 Really? 0:03:56.331 --> 0:04:00.091 That was the big thing that caused the most in 0:04:00.171 --> 0:04:03.731 my recollection, the most deliberation, for lack of a better word, 0:04:03.851 --> 0:04:07.011 was yes, we feel he was guilty, but was he 0:04:07.051 --> 0:04:08.411 the mastermind? 0:04:13.651 --> 0:04:18.890 Was he the mastermind? That was the big question. After 0:04:18.890 --> 0:04:21.410 the verdict, people were going to draw all sorts of 0:04:21.411 --> 0:04:24.530 conclusions about how gangsters like Johnny Yang are held to 0:04:24.570 --> 0:04:28.771 account by the justice system, and this reckoning would lead 0:04:28.811 --> 0:04:38.611 to big changes both in Manhattan's Chinatown and beyond. I'm 0:04:38.651 --> 0:04:43.210 Lyddy Jinkot and this is the Chinatown Sting, Episode six, 0:04:43.891 --> 0:04:44.931 A sense of order. 0:04:56.291 --> 0:04:58.411 So the jury deliberated for a long time. 0:04:58.571 --> 0:05:02.731 They did yes, and the jury Joanne Cohen. She remembers 0:05:03.051 --> 0:05:06.331 going back and forth about the mastermind count. 0:05:05.891 --> 0:05:08.331 Because you're talking about somebody's life. You don't want to 0:05:08.331 --> 0:05:11.451 get it wrong. I don't know what sounds really mean, 0:05:11.491 --> 0:05:13.690 but I just felt like he wasn't smart enough to 0:05:13.731 --> 0:05:17.371 be that mastermind. I don't know why I felt like that. 0:05:17.531 --> 0:05:21.371 I just maybe from the testimonies of the other witnesses, 0:05:21.371 --> 0:05:24.851 but I don't know. Maybe it was just a wrong 0:05:24.931 --> 0:05:28.491 judgment call at that age for me, But I just 0:05:28.531 --> 0:05:31.891 felt like, this is a pretty intricate operation. You have 0:05:31.971 --> 0:05:35.851 to be pretty savvy, and I just, for some reason, 0:05:37.211 --> 0:05:40.331 I didn't see him in that role. He just seemed 0:05:40.371 --> 0:05:42.411 like a regular person you'd see in China, kind of 0:05:42.451 --> 0:05:43.451 walking down the street. 0:05:43.491 --> 0:05:43.611 You know. 0:05:43.611 --> 0:05:47.570 I just nobody I would be afraid of just in passing. 0:05:48.731 --> 0:05:51.650 Wow, I mean, Johnny does have a baby face. 0:05:52.411 --> 0:05:54.851 Yeah, But how would you feel as a lawyer if 0:05:54.891 --> 0:05:58.570 you had spent four or five years trying to get 0:05:58.611 --> 0:06:01.851 this guy and then Jerry was like, I don't know, 0:06:01.971 --> 0:06:03.731 he just doesn't look like a mastermind. 0:06:04.251 --> 0:06:08.011 I would be very, very frustrated. As a lawyer. You would. 0:06:09.171 --> 0:06:11.331 See the case in a very different way, not like 0:06:11.451 --> 0:06:14.211 very different way, but like you focus on different things 0:06:14.731 --> 0:06:17.371 that may or may not stick out to the jury. 0:06:17.731 --> 0:06:21.651 They might just trust what they see more versus what 0:06:21.731 --> 0:06:22.211 they hear. 0:06:25.690 --> 0:06:29.811 Finally, on the afternoon of December fifteenth, the jurors sent 0:06:29.891 --> 0:06:32.971 out a note to the judge saying, we have reached 0:06:32.971 --> 0:06:38.491 a verdict. The prosecution team, the defense team, the reporters, 0:06:38.891 --> 0:06:42.451 the onlookers, the jurors. They all gathered back in the 0:06:42.491 --> 0:06:49.091 courtroom and the judge read each count out loud. The 0:06:49.171 --> 0:06:52.731 jurors had decided that Johnny was not guilty of count one, 0:06:53.051 --> 0:06:56.331 being the principal leader of the heroin importation scheme, the 0:06:56.331 --> 0:07:00.091 mastermind count, the count that came with a mandatory life 0:07:00.131 --> 0:07:05.211 sentence without pearl. He was also found not guilty of 0:07:05.251 --> 0:07:07.411 the counts brought by the Southern District of New York 0:07:07.931 --> 0:07:09.971 that he had conspired to import hair I went through 0:07:10.011 --> 0:07:14.411 a bean sprout washing machine. But he was found guilty 0:07:14.731 --> 0:07:18.131 of counts relating to importing heroin through the mail, the 0:07:18.211 --> 0:07:22.331 counts brought by the Eastern District of New York. In 0:07:22.371 --> 0:07:25.571 the end, it seems like the jurors believed the testimony 0:07:25.891 --> 0:07:30.211 of cooperating witnesses enough to convict him on those counts. 0:07:32.051 --> 0:07:35.211 Throughout the trial, the reporter Gerald Posner had been chatting 0:07:35.291 --> 0:07:37.971 with other journalists. They've been trying to figure out the 0:07:38.011 --> 0:07:42.451 strategy of Johnny's defense team and its lead attorney, Gerald Schargell. 0:07:44.011 --> 0:07:46.091 We used to sort of be amazed at how he 0:07:46.171 --> 0:07:49.291 was making his case. It didn't make sense to me 0:07:49.971 --> 0:07:54.011 when I heard it at first, which was not really 0:07:54.051 --> 0:07:55.691 contesting what you would call the heart of the charge 0:07:55.731 --> 0:07:57.091 and saying you have the wrong person. 0:07:58.251 --> 0:08:00.571 But now they realized that maybe this outcome had been 0:08:00.611 --> 0:08:03.131 part of Johnny and his lawyer's master plan. 0:08:04.091 --> 0:08:07.411 I remember Chargell said, we're very pleased with it because 0:08:07.851 --> 0:08:11.891 the fact that he didn't get convicted as the ringleader 0:08:12.491 --> 0:08:15.051 is just one member of this network. Is the difference 0:08:15.051 --> 0:08:18.931 between doing life in prison without parole or getting out 0:08:18.931 --> 0:08:19.331 one day. 0:08:20.451 --> 0:08:24.051 While Johnny's schemes were simple, his ability to orchestrate them 0:08:24.051 --> 0:08:27.611 all with barely a physical trace may have been enough 0:08:27.651 --> 0:08:32.291 to save him from receiving the harshest sentence. But before 0:08:32.331 --> 0:08:36.331 the judge decided Johnny's fate, she first considered the fate 0:08:36.530 --> 0:08:43.251 of prosecutor Beryl Howells. Two star cooperating witnesses, Wall and 0:08:43.330 --> 0:08:48.530 Michael Yu, also known as Fox. Wall was sentenced to 0:08:48.611 --> 0:08:51.810 five years times. She had already served in the MCC 0:08:52.251 --> 0:08:55.491 that jail outside of Chinatown while waiting for her own trial, 0:08:55.891 --> 0:09:00.050 waiting for Johnny's extradition, and waiting for Johnny's trial to conclude. 0:09:00.930 --> 0:09:04.731 Maybe at first Wall had thought that MCC wasn't so bad, 0:09:05.611 --> 0:09:07.931 but when she spoke to us, she alluded to it 0:09:08.011 --> 0:09:11.611 sounded like horrible incidents. Waugh said that if she went 0:09:11.611 --> 0:09:14.251 into details, she could get a whole bunch of different 0:09:14.251 --> 0:09:16.450 people into trouble, including the guards. 0:09:17.371 --> 0:09:19.651 I should burn the whole mcc dow. 0:09:20.251 --> 0:09:23.690 But she's not going to. She's done talking with authorities. 0:09:24.210 --> 0:09:24.771 I don't want to. 0:09:24.810 --> 0:09:29.450 Hurt people if I say things and they'll hurt them. 0:09:29.851 --> 0:09:32.291 Wall went home from jail to pick up the pieces 0:09:32.290 --> 0:09:36.570 of her life. Her ex boyfriend Fox wound up getting 0:09:36.570 --> 0:09:40.250 sentenced to seven years plus probation. He had already served 0:09:40.290 --> 0:09:43.891 much of that time, and the day after Wall and 0:09:43.970 --> 0:09:49.651 Fox are sentencing, Johnny himself appeared back in court. The 0:09:49.731 --> 0:09:52.450 judge said she knew she was about to rip his 0:09:52.491 --> 0:09:57.610 family apart, but she told him, by importing Heroine quote, 0:09:58.330 --> 0:10:02.171 you ruin the lives of many other families and many children. 0:10:03.651 --> 0:10:10.851 Johnny Yang was sentenced to twenty four years. Beryl thinks 0:10:11.210 --> 0:10:12.451 that that was a fair outcome. 0:10:13.810 --> 0:10:16.210 There are some prosecutors who want to win on all 0:10:16.210 --> 0:10:21.651 accounts and they want the highest sentence possible. That really 0:10:21.771 --> 0:10:27.011 wasn't something that I dwelled on as a prosecutor, because 0:10:27.011 --> 0:10:27.810 he was convicted. 0:10:29.651 --> 0:10:32.611 Like many inmates, Johnny served his time in different prisons, 0:10:33.290 --> 0:10:35.330 but it seems like he served at least a portion 0:10:35.450 --> 0:10:39.011 of a sentence in Raybrooke, a medium security prison so 0:10:39.170 --> 0:10:42.571 far north, it's almost in Canada. We only have a 0:10:42.570 --> 0:10:45.051 brief glimpse of onion heads of life from that time. 0:10:45.690 --> 0:10:49.091 It's in a memoir by John Gotty's son, John A. Gotty, 0:10:49.491 --> 0:10:53.331 who also did time at Raybrook. He calls Johnny a 0:10:53.410 --> 0:10:59.091 gentleman sellmate. I can tell Beryl is proud of Johnny's trial, 0:10:59.330 --> 0:11:02.290 because I've seen her scrap books from that time. One 0:11:02.330 --> 0:11:06.771 page has my boyfriend sister's birth announcement, the next page 0:11:06.851 --> 0:11:10.930 has some baby photos, and then barrels cut out and pasted, 0:11:11.251 --> 0:11:15.530 pages and pages of newspaper clippings. They all have headlines 0:11:15.930 --> 0:11:21.851 like ex Chinatown gang boss convicted. Just as Johnny's rise 0:11:21.891 --> 0:11:26.051 to power had a big impact on Manhattan's Chinatown, so 0:11:26.330 --> 0:11:46.290 would his downfall. According to the former gangster Mike moy, 0:11:46.851 --> 0:11:50.651 newspaper articles about Johnny Ing's trial made ordinary residents of 0:11:50.731 --> 0:11:52.651 Chinatown feel more anxious. 0:11:54.011 --> 0:11:57.971 Anytime these gang members hit the fund page of the news, well, 0:11:58.330 --> 0:12:01.811 actually hit the news. They don't ever hit the funk page. 0:12:02.090 --> 0:12:04.730 But whenever they hit the news in a Chinese newspaper, 0:12:06.050 --> 0:12:11.851 they become more fearful because they like, Wow, look what 0:12:11.930 --> 0:12:15.530 these guys are doing in Chinatown. These guys are powerful, 0:12:15.611 --> 0:12:19.410 these guys are making the money. They can basically do 0:12:19.530 --> 0:12:20.251 anything to me. 0:12:21.450 --> 0:12:24.011 But Mike says he interpreted this coverage differently. 0:12:24.810 --> 0:12:26.851 When I was a gang member at the time, I'm like, 0:12:26.891 --> 0:12:29.090 you know what, this is the nail in the coffin 0:12:29.170 --> 0:12:32.250 for these gangs. We're done, we are done. 0:12:32.410 --> 0:12:33.050 That was it. 0:12:34.930 --> 0:12:37.290 Mike says that the reason gang leaders like Johnny Yang 0:12:37.410 --> 0:12:40.050 became so powerful was because they had the backing of 0:12:40.090 --> 0:12:43.410 the Tongs, those respected community associations. 0:12:43.891 --> 0:12:46.530 The Tongues had the connection to the cops and the politicians, 0:12:46.771 --> 0:12:50.611 and the Tongues had the connection to the trias overseas. 0:12:51.410 --> 0:12:55.491 So it was that power base that they had. 0:12:56.491 --> 0:13:00.410 As soon as gangster started getting convicted, Tong leaders severed 0:13:00.410 --> 0:13:03.370 their relationship with the gangs. They didn't want the FEDS 0:13:03.410 --> 0:13:04.730 going after them as well. 0:13:05.530 --> 0:13:08.571 No Tongs want to be associated with any criminal activities anymore. 0:13:08.771 --> 0:13:11.170 They're being washed like a hawk, and. 0:13:11.090 --> 0:13:13.811 The FEDS just kept bringing new cases against many of 0:13:13.851 --> 0:13:18.250 the gangs, including the Flying Dragons. About a year after 0:13:18.330 --> 0:13:21.930 Johnny was convicted, thirty three members of the Flying Dragons 0:13:22.090 --> 0:13:26.451 were indicted on racketeering charges under the Racketeer Influenced and 0:13:26.491 --> 0:13:31.170 Corrupt Organizations Act or RICO, the same law prosecutors had 0:13:31.251 --> 0:13:33.331 used earlier to go after the Italian mafia. 0:13:34.210 --> 0:13:38.450 If you were a Flying Dragon member, you don't want 0:13:38.851 --> 0:13:42.530 to be known as a Flying Dragon member, whereas before 0:13:42.530 --> 0:13:45.851 the RICO you advertise the fact that you are a 0:13:45.891 --> 0:13:46.971 Flying Dragon member. 0:13:48.170 --> 0:13:51.490 After Johnny was sentenced, no one replaced him. 0:13:52.050 --> 0:13:54.530 I will say Anya Head was the last real leader 0:13:55.251 --> 0:13:59.130 of the Flying Dragons. 0:14:00.330 --> 0:14:02.810 By the mid nineties, pretty much all the major gangs 0:14:02.851 --> 0:14:07.450 of Chinatown had dissolved. Mikes's new groups sprung up using 0:14:07.450 --> 0:14:10.011 the old gang names as a way of capital on 0:14:10.050 --> 0:14:13.571 how much people previously feared them. But in Mike's view, 0:14:13.731 --> 0:14:16.530 these new gangs were really just a bunch of kids. 0:14:17.170 --> 0:14:20.731 When you talk about the real, actual members of the 0:14:20.731 --> 0:14:24.451 Flying Dragons, it was gone. That's it. 0:14:24.451 --> 0:14:26.531 It's like when the franchise fins off and it's like 0:14:26.571 --> 0:14:29.210 the seventh eighth sequel. It's like, no one's watching that anymore. 0:14:29.210 --> 0:14:34.651 Here exactly exactly, It's like so many different spirrills Thia, 0:14:34.731 --> 0:14:37.691 let's say, Godzella. 0:14:39.171 --> 0:14:42.011 Without the connection to the Tongs. The new gangs had 0:14:42.011 --> 0:14:44.651 nowhere near the same power or influence in the community. 0:14:45.210 --> 0:14:48.691 They didn't last long. People stopped having to worry about 0:14:48.691 --> 0:14:52.611 getting caught in the crossfire during gang shootouts, small business 0:14:52.651 --> 0:14:57.451 owners stopped having to pay extortion fees. By putting Johnny away, 0:14:57.691 --> 0:15:00.571 it does seem like Beryl Howell, along with many other 0:15:00.651 --> 0:15:03.891 federal authorities, played a role in changing the facts on 0:15:03.931 --> 0:15:08.891 the ground in Chinatown. As for Mike, he did a 0:15:08.891 --> 0:15:12.931 one hundred an eighty degree turn. He joined the NYPD. 0:15:13.811 --> 0:15:16.291 One of the neighborhoods he was assigned to patrol was 0:15:16.291 --> 0:15:20.771 Brooklyn's Chinatown. At first, Mike worried what if he ran 0:15:20.851 --> 0:15:23.730 into former gangsters. He knew what would they think about 0:15:23.731 --> 0:15:27.051 his new job, but he got too busy to keep 0:15:27.051 --> 0:15:30.771 thinking about stuff like that. When he joined, Mike was 0:15:30.771 --> 0:15:33.890 one of only a few hundred Asian officers in the NYPD, 0:15:34.491 --> 0:15:38.091 a small percentage of the force, and out of those officers, 0:15:38.491 --> 0:15:41.451 only a handful could speak with crime victims in Cantonese. 0:15:42.291 --> 0:15:44.891 They feel more comfortable in dealing with me because I'm 0:15:44.931 --> 0:15:48.171 able to speak their language, their dialect, and I'm able 0:15:48.210 --> 0:15:54.931 to explain the entire process to them, what's necessary, what 0:15:54.970 --> 0:15:58.051 they need to do every step of the way to 0:15:58.131 --> 0:16:00.531 take the fairly unknown away. 0:16:01.411 --> 0:16:03.651 Other cops I've interviewed told me they had trouble at 0:16:03.691 --> 0:16:07.331 convincing residents of Chinatown to help them solve crimes. Mike 0:16:07.491 --> 0:16:09.971 sounds frustrated when I bring this up, like it's something 0:16:10.011 --> 0:16:11.771 he's heard a thousand times before. 0:16:12.891 --> 0:16:14.891 When you were an Asian person going in and you 0:16:14.891 --> 0:16:16.850 don't speak English, and you walk into the priests, and 0:16:17.931 --> 0:16:22.971 if you get that, you feel like you're getting victimized again. Now, 0:16:22.970 --> 0:16:25.931 if you treat the complaint like how you treat your mom, 0:16:26.171 --> 0:16:29.651 I think that will take away allow of these issues 0:16:29.651 --> 0:16:30.531 that we're talking about. 0:16:32.811 --> 0:16:35.730 After more than two decades on the force, Mike retired 0:16:36.571 --> 0:16:38.571 and he noticed that nobody seemed to be talking about 0:16:38.611 --> 0:16:41.210 what he had lived through back when gang life was 0:16:41.251 --> 0:16:41.811 all he knew. 0:16:42.451 --> 0:16:44.411 I've been waiting all these years for someone like me 0:16:44.491 --> 0:16:47.490 to come out and at least share some of the stories, 0:16:47.531 --> 0:16:48.931 but there wasn't even one. 0:16:49.891 --> 0:16:52.491 So he got back in touch with some people first, 0:16:52.931 --> 0:16:54.291 just a few old friends. 0:16:54.611 --> 0:16:56.891 Today, I have a short story to share with you 0:16:57.011 --> 0:16:58.491 about the Flying Dragons. 0:16:59.330 --> 0:17:02.451 The former gangsters Mike interviews on his YouTube channel are 0:17:02.491 --> 0:17:05.571 now mostly in their fifties and sixties. Some of them 0:17:05.651 --> 0:17:07.051 share their stories in English. 0:17:07.291 --> 0:17:09.411 I remember walking this is about middle. 0:17:09.211 --> 0:17:12.291 Of the night and the boss of Cashows, Carrly, broke 0:17:12.371 --> 0:17:12.650 on me. 0:17:13.411 --> 0:17:18.411 Some in Cantonese, we homegonge so huge. 0:17:19.171 --> 0:17:22.091 You see Mike talking to one guy wearing aviator glasses, 0:17:22.611 --> 0:17:25.931 another with an eighty style mullet. But even if their 0:17:25.931 --> 0:17:28.531 fashion sense is a little stuck in time, they all 0:17:28.531 --> 0:17:32.371 say they've moved on. They now have jobs running construction companies, 0:17:32.771 --> 0:17:37.171 working in real estate as restaurant owners. Members of once 0:17:37.291 --> 0:17:40.051 rival gangs who once couldn't even be seen on each 0:17:40.051 --> 0:17:43.090 other's streets, can now be seen making sense of the 0:17:43.091 --> 0:17:45.571 past together on Mike's channel. 0:17:46.571 --> 0:17:51.211 Probably freaking a couple thousand feet away from the tattoos 0:17:51.611 --> 0:17:54.771 the courthouses. Funny that how we operate down in the 0:17:54.851 --> 0:17:57.891 Taratal as a gang back then, But we're so close 0:17:57.931 --> 0:18:00.211 to the precinct and the freaking U the courthouses. 0:18:00.291 --> 0:18:01.451 Yeah, but we weren't scared. 0:18:05.171 --> 0:18:08.171 Because of Chinatown gang stories, Mike has become a kind 0:18:08.171 --> 0:18:10.370 of information hub for people who used to be part 0:18:10.411 --> 0:18:13.651 of the Asian underworld. He says he's been getting updates 0:18:13.651 --> 0:18:17.731 about Johnny from people in touch with him directly. Johnny 0:18:17.771 --> 0:18:20.891 was released from prison in twenty ten. He served twenty 0:18:20.971 --> 0:18:24.771 years of his twenty four year long sentence. I've heard 0:18:24.811 --> 0:18:27.171 that Johnny's in Hong Kong and he has a business 0:18:27.211 --> 0:18:32.251 importing lobsters from Maine. Mike won't confirm these rumors, but 0:18:32.331 --> 0:18:34.370 he tells me that Johnny has also moved on from 0:18:34.411 --> 0:18:37.811 his life of crime. He's doing well. Will you tell 0:18:37.851 --> 0:18:38.411 him that I'm. 0:18:38.291 --> 0:18:38.971 Doing this podcast. 0:18:39.091 --> 0:18:41.851 He knows, he knows I sent the message out there. 0:18:44.851 --> 0:18:48.211 In Beryl's household. The Chinatown Sting is a family legend, 0:18:48.691 --> 0:18:52.571 a story everyone's heard many times. But after years of 0:18:52.611 --> 0:18:57.211 investigating it, still didn't really understand what exactly it is 0:18:57.211 --> 0:19:00.011 about this case that stuck with Beryl. What did she 0:19:00.091 --> 0:19:03.251 take away from it? I think the answer has to 0:19:03.251 --> 0:19:05.731 do with why she chose to become a prosecutor and 0:19:05.771 --> 0:19:08.531 a judge in the first place. How she feels when 0:19:08.531 --> 0:19:09.411 she walks into a court. 0:19:10.611 --> 0:19:13.811 The etiquette of a courtroom is like so clear, you. 0:19:13.731 --> 0:19:16.771 Deal with the most messy things in life there, but 0:19:16.851 --> 0:19:18.451 it's also like the most orderly. 0:19:18.731 --> 0:19:21.291 There is a sense of order in the courtroom. Who 0:19:21.291 --> 0:19:24.971 speaks first, you know, is your emotion, the plaintive, who 0:19:24.971 --> 0:19:29.691 has the burden. There's an order to sort through the 0:19:29.691 --> 0:19:37.291 complex issues that human beings have among themselves in the courtroom. 0:19:37.571 --> 0:19:40.491 Even though Johnny's conviction was one of Beryl's hardest won 0:19:40.611 --> 0:19:43.891 courtroom victories, when she thinks back on the Chinatown Sting, 0:19:44.411 --> 0:19:47.211 the moment that sticks with her didn't happen during his trial. 0:19:48.291 --> 0:19:52.171 It's weird what you remember what you don't The moment 0:19:52.211 --> 0:19:56.251 that Beryl remembers best happened years before. It involved a 0:19:56.251 --> 0:19:59.571 woman who received mail packages of heroin but chose not 0:19:59.851 --> 0:20:03.971 to cooperate. She was about thirty years old, she was 0:20:03.971 --> 0:20:07.931 from Taipei, and she didn't speak English. I never got 0:20:07.931 --> 0:20:11.051 to interview this woman, but according to the court documents, 0:20:11.131 --> 0:20:13.330 she agreed to receive these boxes to help pay for 0:20:13.371 --> 0:20:17.371 her wedding. She was pregnant during her trial for heroin importation. 0:20:18.771 --> 0:20:21.651 Shortly before it was over, she gave birth to a 0:20:21.651 --> 0:20:27.931 baby boy. She was then found guilty. Around this time, 0:20:27.971 --> 0:20:31.651 her husband, a restaurant manager, was murdered by a gang 0:20:31.691 --> 0:20:37.131 member after refusing to pay an extortion fee. Beryl Howell 0:20:37.131 --> 0:20:39.451 had been able to ask for leniency for other defendants, 0:20:39.771 --> 0:20:43.171 but this woman had never been a cooperating witness and 0:20:43.251 --> 0:20:45.771 she didn't have any information that would lead Beryl up 0:20:45.771 --> 0:20:50.651 the latter any further. She faced a mandatory minimum penalty 0:20:50.691 --> 0:20:54.811 for what she'd done. A decade in prison, leaving her 0:20:54.851 --> 0:20:56.651 baby without either of his parents. 0:20:59.011 --> 0:20:59.611 That was hard. 0:21:00.851 --> 0:21:02.611 It was hard for me. It was so hard for 0:21:02.691 --> 0:21:08.091 Judge Wexler sentencing this new mom to jail for ten years. 0:21:08.091 --> 0:21:10.251 So she's going to have to give up her child 0:21:10.411 --> 0:21:11.251 for ten years. 0:21:11.971 --> 0:21:13.411 It was very very hard. 0:21:13.171 --> 0:21:19.850 For Judge Wexler. My recollection is that he called me stoneface, 0:21:19.971 --> 0:21:22.691 and I thought to myself, he has no idea what's 0:21:22.691 --> 0:21:25.811 going on inside. I do remember that being very very hard, 0:21:26.091 --> 0:21:27.051 and it was very hard. 0:21:29.051 --> 0:21:32.771 While trying to bring down Johnny, Beryl confronted a flaw 0:21:33.051 --> 0:21:37.291 in her orderly system. She couldn't do it without cooperators. 0:21:37.811 --> 0:21:40.331 She had been using the mandatory minimums as a threat 0:21:40.371 --> 0:21:43.090 to convince them to work with her, but threats alone 0:21:43.171 --> 0:21:44.171 weren't always enough. 0:21:45.211 --> 0:21:47.251 They have to trust that you're going to be fair 0:21:47.251 --> 0:21:49.251 with them and that you're going to live up to 0:21:49.251 --> 0:21:49.891 your promises. 0:21:51.131 --> 0:21:54.291 For the legal system to work, people have to trust it, 0:21:54.931 --> 0:21:57.411 and for them to trust the system, they have to 0:21:57.451 --> 0:22:00.850 believe that it will deal with them justly. Now that 0:22:00.891 --> 0:22:03.491 she's looking back on her career as a prosecutor and 0:22:03.531 --> 0:22:07.291 a judge, Beryl hopes that she's remembered for one thing. 0:22:08.331 --> 0:22:15.531 That no matter what position of power I held viz. 0:22:15.651 --> 0:22:24.091 Via another person, that I never lost sight of the 0:22:24.171 --> 0:22:26.931 human being standing in front of me, and that I 0:22:27.091 --> 0:22:30.211 treated people respectfully and fairly. 0:22:34.171 --> 0:22:36.931 But Beryl still wonders about the people who did cooperate 0:22:37.491 --> 0:22:40.331 and helped her win her first big case. What did 0:22:40.371 --> 0:22:41.571 they make of this encounter? 0:22:43.251 --> 0:22:46.811 I know what that did for me in understanding better 0:22:46.891 --> 0:22:50.811 about their world. But what I don't know is that 0:22:50.971 --> 0:22:53.531 they feel that they understood more about a world they 0:22:53.531 --> 0:22:57.411 didn't know by spending time not with me particularly, but 0:22:57.491 --> 0:23:01.251 with the agents and being in the courtroom. Whether that 0:23:01.371 --> 0:23:03.291 had any effect on them as they went forward. 0:23:05.411 --> 0:23:08.211 In other words, did they ever perceive her ultimate goal 0:23:09.491 --> 0:23:12.531 to bring order injustice out of the courtroom and into 0:23:12.571 --> 0:23:33.771 the world. I found myself thinking about my conversation with 0:23:33.851 --> 0:23:37.611 Beryl about trust and order when I went to visit 0:23:37.611 --> 0:23:41.291 an immigration courthouse, a gray building just a few blocks 0:23:41.331 --> 0:23:46.131 away from Chinatown. As federal authorities have ramped up deportations, 0:23:46.731 --> 0:23:50.691 that atmosphere has become tense. I told shew you about 0:23:50.691 --> 0:23:55.090 what I saw. It used to be that immigration authorities 0:23:55.571 --> 0:24:00.130 wouldn't They would stay away from immigration courthouses because they 0:24:00.171 --> 0:24:02.211 knew people might fear them, and then that would make 0:24:02.251 --> 0:24:06.011 them more reluctant to go in for their regular you know, 0:24:06.451 --> 0:24:11.411 immigration proceedings, et cetera. But now that's changed. Now it 0:24:11.411 --> 0:24:13.651 happens when you go in for your immigration hearing there's 0:24:13.731 --> 0:24:16.811 federal agents who are stationed outside of the courtroom and 0:24:17.211 --> 0:24:20.571 they look really intimidating. Their faces are totally covered with 0:24:20.571 --> 0:24:25.211 like pandanas and they wear baseball caps. And then when 0:24:25.211 --> 0:24:27.771 I was there, they were standing outside of the door, 0:24:28.491 --> 0:24:31.131 and then when the person comes out from their hearing, 0:24:31.811 --> 0:24:33.691 they all kind of like approach. This person was a 0:24:33.691 --> 0:24:36.611 woman and she was with her lawyer, and they asked 0:24:36.651 --> 0:24:40.331 her to show them some documentation, and you could tell 0:24:40.371 --> 0:24:43.811