Life As a Fugitive For Seven Years

0:02 Remember the Harrison Ford movie The Fugitive. Depending on your age, you might also remember the TV show starring David Jansen. The common factor between the two is an innocent man wrongly accused of a crime trying to maintain a low profile and find a way to clear his name while being on the run as a fugitive. In the series, Richard Kimball goes from town to town doing his best to blend in and not attract attention. Well, Brice Birth lived this life for real. He was a fugitive on the run for years. Almost as bizarrely as his story began with something so unjust, it ended with the seemingly divine restoration of justice.

0:44 My wife and I were married, My children were fifteen, seventeen, and nineteen. We were living pretty much right in Beverly Hills, in the area of Pico and Robertson. I had my own business, construction and remodeling business. I had all the skilled trades mastered. Yeah, that was my life for a long long time. What happened was the very day we moved in, we were moving our belongings into the apartment. We had the lower apartment. She was occupying the upstairs as soon as we were unloading the truck, my wife was bringing her plants into the apartment. She set them on the front porch. She walked back to the truck, and when she came back to the porch, all her pots were smashed and broken, and the plants were destroyed all over the front porch. All of this took place within a matter of five minutes after we pulled up to the house. And so that was our first encounter.

1:53 Bryce is referring to a female neighbor at his apartment building. We're not going to use her name. And then I had an occasion to find out that my hot water heater wasn't working in the house, and so my landlord said, well, look, she's got the key to the basement. That's where the hot water heater is. Would you mind going and checking it out, see what you can do. Get back to me. So I go up the stairs. The access to her place was really in the backyard along flight of stairs up to the second floor. So I walk up there. She opens the door and she's in a bathrobe, completely naked, and she flat out asked me, I want you to come in and be with me. I was just like, in total shock, dumbfounded, and my reaction was, Hey, I'm happily married. I don't even roll that way. I'm here to get the key to the basement, so on and so forth. So she gave me the key. I went checked it out and got back with the landlord. But it was right then that I realized what she was all about, and I told myself, I got a feeling this girl is going to be trouble. We moved in there. I believe it was in July of nineteen ninety seven, and the accusation for the truck was in November, so our four months.

3:20 Four months. She confronted me multiple times. I mean, she framed my wife. I was not at home this one particular day. I was down at the track, running the track, and I come home and there are four police cars parked out at the curb in front of the department and they got my wife in handcuffed. I'm going, what's going on here? And I went and said, well, placed your wife under citizens arrest. And then the police came and cuffed her and threw in the back of the squad car. And I'm going why, And the eyewitness said, well, supposedly is claiming that your wife cut her garden hose, and I'm going, really, that's my garden hose, so why would she be cutting my garden hose? Basically lies to the cops. She's trying to get my wife in jail.

4:23 In the subsequent months, there were many occasions where she tried to approach me in the front yard and say something to me. Probably later on in the summer, or probably in September October, there was an occasion where she approached me and she said, I am going to destroy your life. I'm going to make sure of it, and I laughed it off. We decided to leave LA and I rented a twenty six foot U haul truck and our destination was South Lake Jahoe. The night before we left, the truck was packed and our plan was to leave early in the morning. I observed her running around the truck with a notebook in her hand on a pen, writing down all kinds of stuff. What she was writing I had no idea, But again my eyebros were raised and my suspicions were confirmed that yeah, here comes the trouble.

5:22 What she's doing I don't know. But so we leave in the morning and our first stop on the road for gas. Six guys approach the truck. They're packing heat. They're addressing me by my first name, and they're asking me all kinds of weird questions. I'm thinking, okay, all right, I get it. Something's up. I don't know what it is, but I'm being followed. So we get to South Lake Tahoe. I get a job. I get laid off right before Thanksgiving. The original truck out of LA. The plan was to drive it back to LA and then my buddy in LA and I were going to drive my wife's Mercedes back to South Lake Tahoe. So in Tahoe, I was supposed to take the truck back to LA. It wouldn't start.

6:16 I had issues with it, so I called the rental facility in LA for the U haul truck. I told them what happened. They said, no worries. We have an affiliate there. We'll come and get it. So I have to rent another truck to go to my next destination, which was boise EO. I rent a twenty six foot Rider truck. The stipulation was a seven day time period, so we run an inclement weather. I have to call the Rider corporation get the contract modified. They modified it great. They gave me another seven days, more than enough time to get to Boise. We get to Boise right away, I get employment, my son and I go right to work doing some remodeling project. And the day before I was going to turn the truck in, we were working and my wife called me. She said, look, detectives from the Boise Police Department were here. They want to speak to you about a stolen truck out of LA. And I said, what, how can that be? We have contracts. Okay, Well, they want you to come down to the police station tomorrow.

7:27 Talked to him, was like okay, So I go down there. The detective says to me, look, I have information out of LA that you stole a rental truck, a moving truck. I talked to a friend last night in LA. It's been confirmed that it is not a misdemeanor. It's a teleny and it's grand theft. AUTO did original truck that are read in LA the contract data. I'm going to Lake Lake, Tao, and then I'm bringing it back to LA. There wasn't a problem with that. I think what was in question here was the second truck that I rented out of South Lake Tahoe to Boise. The point is I had a contract for both rentals, so the accusation was that I had actually broken into the truck rent a lot, stole the truck, and I pulled a contract out of my pocket and I showed the detective. He snatches it out of my hand. He said, hey, I want you to speak into this tape recorder. He turns the tape recorder on. He said, I want you to admit that you stole that truck out of that lot.

8:46 And I said, to you, out of your mind, why would I do that. Here's my contract, written contract. He said, you're under a restagrant theft auto. That was it. They did not show me a copy of any kind of complaint. As it turned out, there never was any requisition paperwork to establish probable cause. There was no evidence. There was nothing there. This was all happening because of what instigated initially out of la We figured this out later. What she did was she incorporated her liaisons who were cops from the west lapd who were friends, and used them to fabricate this whole story. Then they have people follow me and then they make phone calls and it's all based upon the acts that she has to crying with me, and everybody bought into it and believed it. There were no rules to play by it. They were going to do this. Did Bryce ask for a lawyer? As a matter of fact, after that arrest, in my first arraignment hearing, I obviously requested a public defender. Well he's a no show.

10:11 He didn't even show up like he was supposed to. And there was another occasion where I requested a public defender, he didn't show up. I decided at that point, after all these attorneys weren't showing up, I was going to represent myself. I go before the judge and I say, look, there's no requisition paperwork established, probably because there's nothing here. I mean, due process isn't being followed. I got to go home. He said okay. He set what was called a second identification hearing, which is just a step in the whole process where they identify you as a subject in question. So we set another hearing for the thirtieth of January. I go home and I decided to call on the court and requests a third public defender. We had figured out that the process wasn't followed correctly. They claimed that there was a perfection hearing that took place, and it never did. And a perfection hearing is a hearing that takes place after an identification hearing. So if there were no identifications hearings, how could there be a perfection hearing. I called for an attorney. He calls me.

11:32 We talked about the case. He said, I can get you out of this, and so we agreed to meet on the thirtieth of January in Boise. We were living in nordon I Hour at the time we traveled down to Boise. It turns out he's another no show and the original judge that was sitting on the bench that day presiding over my case. She was the original judge at the very first arraynment that threw the case out in the first place. However, at that time she allowed the discovery to commence. She's buying time for the requisition paperwork out of California to show up, and it never did.

12:14 I get down to Boise, she's on the bench one thirty PM docket. She slams down the gavel and she said, put him under arrest. He's on a no bond hold. Get him out of here. That was it. So the case supposedly was dismissed, but here I am being arrested again. They put me in the hole for forty eight days in Boise. I go through all the beatings and so on and so forth, and then I get extradited. They fly me back to South Lake Tahoe. I'm extradited. I get back there. A trial data set for April fourth of nineteen ninety, about three weeks maybe four weeks before my trial date. I mean, at that point, the corruption was so out of control, and I was just like, you can't trust anybody, so you're going to have to represent yourself at your trial. By that point in the soil process, I had spent a lot of time studying law, court protocols. I felt confident to handle myself in a courtroom of law. Well. As a trial day draws closer, I started to think, even if you had a seasoned attorney, you're still running a risk. You don't know what a jury could finally decide. And I had to really think

13:45 about that. You know, you got a family. It was at that point I decided I'm going to go on the run. I'm not even going to show up for my trial. They're going to fry me. They're going to load the jury box, They're not going to accept my witness select It was totally out of control. I decided to get a public defender, not to defend me at a trial, to get him to motion for a bond because I was in there on a no boho. I needed a bond. So I'm schmoozing this guy. He was a young attorney and I'm just making him feel like he was the greatest thing since Slice bread Man. He was buying into it, and his only concern was that I would become a flight risk if I bonded out and I've gone to run. I kept schmoozing, even getting him to trust me that I wouldn't do that. So he bought into it, and he got me a ten thousand dollars bond, and I'm going foo. I don't know if I can work with that. I don't know who I can ask for a thousand dollars to get me out of here. I asked him to go and do a second motion before the judge, get me down five thousand, and so he goes before the judge and he said, in your honor, I've counseled much with my client. I trust him. I don't believe he's going to be a flight risk. I think he'll return for his pre trial conference.

15:14 Can we grant him a five thousand dollars bond? Sure enough, she grants a. Convict one two two six four nine fort to the visitors room, cell block two. That's you, waters hey, sweetheart. What happened? We got it down. Yeah, five thousand bonds. Just need to put out five hundred dollars. What happens, then I'm free for now forever? Okay, like I won't if you don't want me to. We know they're not going to let you go no matter what the truth is.

15:57 I love you, baby. You're making me old before my time. Sorry. Shoot, at least you're never born, right. I wouldn't mind being bored after all this. Maybe one day I'll see you soon. Hi, sweetheart. So I pulled it off and I called a buddy of mine. I'd talked to you in twenty years. I said, Gary, get me out of here, and I said, I'll have you out of midnight. He called my stepdaughter. They worked out the details with the bondsman. At midnight. I was out of there. The next morning, I took my wife got me a flight and I flew back to Northern Idaho, and that is when I was officially on the run. Hello, it's me, baby.

17:01 Couldn't have called a couple hours earlier. You know, I'd like to keep you on your toes. I was on my back in bed, dreaming of the things you're going to buy me once this is all over, to say thank you. Sure they still got the Hope diamond out there somewhere. I think it's at the Smithsonian'll break. In and steal it for you and think they can add it to my tab. Sarah for waking the. Out, baby, I wasn't really asleep. I can't sleep if I don't know you were okay? Oh boy, gotta go maybe? Why what's going on? What was that? It'll be okay?

17:42 Is someone there? Pray for me? Sweetheart? I was no longer looking at the criminal justice system through rose covered glasses. Man. It was like, Hey, I've already earned my PhD in the corruption of the system. You have to make wholesale changes and everything that you do. You can't do the things that you normally would do that other people would normally do, like go get a beer and go out to dinner and drive your car and so on and so forth, and you have to realize that your life is now changed and you have to find way of living your life, negotiating through this scott of circumstance that you're in as a fugitive on the run. I certainly had to do that every step of the way. I mean, I couldn't relax in thought or strategy. It was a twenty four to seven thing, man, it was. I had to be on top of it. I had to think about how am I going to get work, how am I going to do this? What if this happens where we're going, what are we going to do? It was very, very.

18:53 Difficult to do, making a risky situation even riskier. Bryce had a bad hab it of defending police officers. I had a friendship with a cop in Cleveland. My daughter knew him and introduced me to him, and I find out he's a beat cup that's his neighborhood and he walked it every day and we started having coffee and conversations, and pretty soon we were meeting every day at Starbucks having coffee. It's like, are you kidding me? Bryce? I can't believe you're doing this. My daughter gets really mad at me. She's dad, You're really crazy. There was another occasion where I'm moving next door to a cop.

19:40 It's like, boy, Bryce, you can really pick him man. And as it turns out, this guy ended up really helping me. Scary as it was, he put his career on the line, put his life on the line, because in the way that he helped me, it was absolutely illegal. And he told me so, and he knew he could get in trouble, but he did it anyway because he liked me and my wife and the kids, and he knew there was something wrong, and he as a cop, he wanted to get to the bottom of it. And he had connections in Washington, d c. And the Justice Department, so he was all in to help me. And in fact, he took all my documentation after we talked, and he put me into the NCIC and we found out I was already convicted of this crime. I was already sentenced, and that was just it's like, oh, really, no kidding, when did this happen? So he saw right off the bat how corrup this was. And we're in Cleveland for a while. We're there for I don't know a year or two, and then we decided we had to leave there and we went to Maine, and then we went from Maine back to Cleveland, and then we went from Cleveland to Florida.

21:00 How could someone live under this sort of pressure for so long? It was overwhelming. I not only had to look out for myself and pay attention, but I had a family. I had a wife and children in to I don't know how I did it to this day. When I took Amtrak from Seattle to Cleveland on a fact finding mission, because we knew we were going there within an hour, I had a job. I was the kind of guy that was like, there's no windows of time, there are no excuses allowed. Man, I don't know what you're going to do and how you're going to do it, but you got to do it, and you're going to do it. You're not going to take no for an answer. That was my mentality. No matter what whether we were moving into a place, everything you did, you were stepping out on a lily pad of faith and trust that things are going to be okay.

21:54 The constant for Bryce was the incredible faith and loyalty of his wife. First time I ever met her, You know there was a connection there, and we fell in love with each other. And truthfully, if you had to describe our personalities, we could be classified as radical different. We had a spiritual connection that was pretty sound. We understood each other really well. We got along and we were really tight, very spiritually sound woman. This was her second marriage and mine, and so she brought two of her children into the marriage, and then we had two between us. But she had been through a lot of tragedies such as this. She was pretty seasoned, and she was pretty privy to how things really work and what was really going on out there spiritually and otherwise. That's the kind of person she was.

22:54 And if she really loved you and she was committed to a cause, she was going to ride that to the end. She's a Taurus. I'm a Taurus, as she always said, you know, once a Taurus finds the diamond in the rough, they're like a pit bow. They're not gonna let go. And that's the kind of woman she was. And she had a great sense of humor, rarely rattled in the face of adversity. She was gonna win and she was going to prove it. She was all about truth and she hated injustice. Truth was everything to her no matter what. And you know, quite frankly, my children were the same way. We weren't a normal family. We had been through so much, we'd seen so much. It's like, hey, we're seasoned veterans man, We're used to this. This is gonna be no problem. We're gonna make it. As scary as it was, as tragic as it was many times when I look at my kids today and I realized their whole teenage life was taking from them. They never got a quality education because we were on the run.

24:10 We had to bolt, we had to do this, we had to do that. But their character and their integrity really rose to the top. Interestingly enough, years later they came to my wife and I and said, you know, this was really bad. It was really horrible. It was really tragic, But you know what, we really got an education on life. We really did as a father, Yeah, I feel bad, and I apologized to him. I couldn't be the father to him that I should have been, or I wanted to be, or I could have been. But at the end of the day, without them and their savvy and their integrity and their guts and their willingness to win. I may not have made it.

24:52 Eventually, as the years went by, Rice wore down. I had changed my whole attitude about this thing, and I'm now looking at like, well, hey, if you already convicted me, and you've sentenced me proved that the court of loss, so let's get on with it. I'm ready to roll the dice. So whatever happens happens. That doesn't mean to say that I quit paying attention or I wasn't thinking about things all the time. I was. When we got to Florida, I started to change my strategy. I won't say that I got careless. Let's put it this way. I was so comfortable with my position, and I was determined to go the rest of my life as a fugitive on the run. And I was really confident, really smart. At that point. I was convinced I had the system figured out, and I was ready to live the rest of my life that way. So, as it turns out, they catch up with me in Florida, I get incarcerated, and then I get extradited back to South lake townholl ten day extradition ride, which I have classified as the most unforgivable and unforgettable ride in my life.

26:03 It was absolutely horrible. So on the extradition ride, I was at the end of my robe. I couldn't really take it anymore. I mean, come on, it's been seven and a half years. I'm burned out. This is out of control. I mean, I'm an innocent man. Come on. And so I decided that I was going to plead guilty when I got there. Hi, hey, baby, what's the lawyers say? They got a million dollar bill? In my head, you should tell that judge to make it ten million or five trillion. We'd have justice good of odds of making bail. Hey, now that what are you going to do?

26:52 I'm done? What does that mean? I'm pleading guilty. I tell you to leave me and find someone else. If I thought there was any chance you listen. As long as I'm breathing, I'm yours. They can't take you away from me. I'll see. Yeah, this is over. I'm one way or another. But something changed. After all these years, Brice finally met a competent attorney. I walk in. There stands this attorney. This guy, he said, I'm your new attorney. So and so doesn't want to take your case. She handed it to me. I am the lead public defender here in the prosecutor's office. I've looked at your case. You are an innocent man. I know I can get you out of it if you're willing to trust me. And I said, that's all. Well, I'm good, and I gave my reasons why I wanted to plead guilty, which was all about getting it over with, getting the criminal aspect of a dealt with assuming civil litigation.

28:02 He tried to talk me out of it, but I wouldn't do it. Finally he said, okay, I have to honure your request. He said, let's go forward with it. So we get in the courtroom and I sit down and there's a guy sitting next to me, and he's my attorney. Walks up and addresses em and greets him good morning, and so it appears to me that these two know each other and they're colleagues. Heads off to the front of the courtroom, behind the bench, behind closed doors and shuts the door, and I'm thinking, where is he going, what's he doing? In the meantime, I'm trying to fill out the pleague paperwork, and this attorney grabs the pen out of my hand. And I said, what are you doing? Who are you And he said, I want to Rick's colleagues. I'm also an attorney. You're not filing anything out because I know what Rick's doing. And I said, what are you talking about it. I said, I'm pleading guilty. He said, well, that's fine. You just sit tight. Man. Time's just dragging on and I'm sweating bullets.

29:06 It's like, come on, judge, you just come out here and get on the bench and give me a chance to ender my play. Let's get out of us. It must have been thirty forty minutes. I'm just like, oh, come on. All of a sudden, here it comes to my attorney and he walks down the aisle right in front of me. He gets nose to nose with me, and he throws his arms around me, and he said, Price, it's all over. You're going home to Cleveland today. What he said, Yeah, the judge has closed the books on your case. He doesn't ever want to see you when his courtroom again. You're out of here. It's the only thing he wants. Under California statute, because you didn't show up for your trial, you're looking at a felony FTA failure to appear. Go back to Cleveland, do six months supervised probation. I'll check it out. Give it all checks out, I'll come back in superior court here in California. It'll be over. And that's how it played out. I'm ball in my eyes up. I mean, you can imagine seven and a half years, all this I've gone through, and it's finally over. I'm going I just couldn't believe it.

30:23 We walk out of the courtroom, arm in arm and that was it. Next day, I caught a bus to Cleveland and there's my wife in downtown Cleveland at the bus station. Nah, tell them to take you back to jail. I need about a two week now, are you interested. I've gotten so used to having more space in the bed. We'll buy a bigger bed. What do we do now? Anything we want? I've forgotten how to. Let's remember together, we just walked arm in arm into the sunset of this nightmare and it was over. That's it.

31:27 Allegedly is a production of Voyage Media. The series is produced by Nap Mondel and Dan Benemore. This episode was executive produced by Bryce Birth based on his novel Through the Eyes of the Eagle available on Amazon. A link is in the show notes. Written and directed by Dan Benemore, edited, sound designed and mixed by James Scully. Original music by Derls Gonzalez. Starring George Gallagher as Bryce and Annie Abrams iss Meghan. If you're enjoying the show, please leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you're listening, and subscribe now for future episodes