Cell Phoney

Making phone calls from jail, Harley Mike allegedly helped three prisoners escape and conned parole agents, sheriff's deputies, and judges.

A A A Comments By A.C. THOMPSON Wednesday, Aug 16 2006

...continued from page 4

Life in here, as evidenced by the crushed blood vessels on Fitzwater's face, can't be too pleasant — though the prisoner says he still prefers county jail to state prison. (The Sheriff's Department, Hirst says, is officially investigating the attack.)

Today, weeks away from the first trial, Fitzwater's world is a bleak place. He fears the jury members "are going to give me 30 years. I'll spend the rest of my life in prison." He worries his friends Curtis and Arakaki will go down hard, too.

Associated Press

Sheriff Michael Hennessey, pointing to paperwork on the phone system, watches over some 2,200 inmates in five jails.

James Sanders

Banged up and bruised, Fitzwater displays a wound.

More About

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.

Despite the fact that Fitzwater never made it past ninth grade, and has probably fried a good bit of his neural circuitry with crank, it's clear he's a very bright character, someone whose natural abilities have been utterly wasted.

Fitzwater can remember only one sliver of sobriety in his adult life, a period in 2001 and 2002, when, he says, he scored a bed in a city-funded rehab and managed to stay clean for 17 months. During that temporary interlude, even the pedestrian aspects of nonaddicted life were magical. "I had a job. I had a car. I bought a Toyota Corolla. It was a $12,000 car, but to me it was like a Cadillac. When I left that lot, it was like I was a citizen for the first time."

It all fell apart, he explains, when he took a swig of cheap wine — and decided to begin chasing the tweaker high again. "It's so easy for someone reading this article to say, 'Why wouldn't he quit? What the fuck?' I don't know," he says, voice faltering, before he continues, very quietly: "It's not that easy."

Of course, Fitzwater could be tugging at the heart strings by manufacturing anecdotes and recasting certain facts — he is, after all, accused of bullshitting a small army of people with his acting. And we weren't able to locate his siblings or friends, so it's hard to corroborate parts of his narrative. But there's no doubt he's ripped himself to shreds with speed.

And for that — and for all the scams and rip-offs and swindles and cons, and everything else — he will most likely pay a very heavy toll.

Perhaps he's pondering an escape.

Check out this week's featured ad for News