Jim Dwyer - Out and About

Jim Dwyer - Out and About

by Bill Kelly

 As I was walking along the Ocean City boardwalk in my old neighborhood I ran into Jim Dwyer, the real estate developer who saved Ocean City’s iconic Flanders Hotel and whose many successful projects help fill the town’s tax coffers today.

Dwyer amazingly informs me that his legal appeal is still alive after over ten years and seven years and five months in prison following his conviction for bank fraud in November 2004.

Dwyer could have taken an 18 month plea and served as little as five to six months and been in and out in 2003, but has said from day one of his indictment that “I have never defrauded anyone in my life,” and that he could not plea to a crime he didn’t commit. Dwyer was in the real estate business for over 30 years and had a reputation for being “squeaky clean” in all of dealing his whole business life. 

I attended Dwyer’s trail in the audience and listened intently, and was quite surprised to learn that none of the half-dozen bankers who testified against Dwyer ever met the man, except one, the loan predator who took advantage of the Flanders’s penthouse facilities gratis and arranged all of the other loans.

Dwyer said that even after being convicted and serving seven years and five months his legal appeal is still active, and said, “Thank God for our justice system. It’s still the best in the world. Due process is still alive.”

He said he has never lacked confidence in his faith and belief that things would work out in the long run.

One thing he mentioned is of his great desire to eventually personally thank all of the nearly 100 citizens who went to his trial to testify to his good character, how he helped them personally and for what he did for the community in general. The good character witnesses were only able to say that Dwyer was a good person. They were not allowed to speak to the jury of the many good deeds he performed for them personally and how he unselfishly helped some out financially without any expected return but their friendship.

I interviewed some of the good-character witnesses like Sister Ginger, who ran Hannah House a half-way house for women in the Philadelphia ghetto who wanted to tell the court how Dwyer paid and arranged for thousands of dollars in needed repairs to their building and did things no one else would have done. But she was not allowed by the court.

Dwyer is convinced that if the good-character witnesses were permitted to detail his good faith activities in support of them and the community, he never would have been convicted of bank fraud. It was only a few years later that predator bankers were the ones being convicted of fraud.

Being that prosecutors are not sworn under oath, they can say anything they want, even lies, but the good-character witnesses were unable to say the good things that Jim Dwyer did.

Dwyer’s lead attorney F. Emmet Fitzpatrick, Jr., the former Philadelphia D.A., and “one of the best criminal defense attorneys in the country” frequently dozed off as the trial proceeded, and was shortly thereafter diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. His son, who lacked criminal defense experience, took over the defense without Dwyer’s official approval, failed to determine who forged Dwyer’s name on the legal document that was clearly not Dwyer’s signature, a probation report that could have been exculpatory evidence that proved Dwyer didn’t know his CFO had previously been convicted and served time for fraud, a prime example of the many ineffective counsel mistakes. .

It was Dwyer himself who found and turned over the different tax forms that his deceased Chief Financial Officer had filed without his knowledge, forms that were used to convict him.

When Dwyer got out of prison he visited Fitzpatrick in a Cape May nursing home and found him catatonic shortly before he passed away. “He didn’t know who I was,” said Dwyer, “I loved the guy. It wasn’t his fault I lost my case.”

Dwyer spent many years building a multi-million dollar international real estate firm and personal fortune, and for twenty years everything he touched turned to gold. All of his properties at the time of his “troubles” became very successful enterprises, all with his vision and plans. But he lost his fortune and family, and now says, “If you lose your money, you lose nothing; if you lose your health, you lose something; if you lose your faith you lose everything.”

He now says he’s starting over to “get back what he lost,” in order to provide for his family who were devastated by the ordeal. And he has kept his faith.

Dwyer said, “I can’t put my shoes on in the morning without my faith. It pushes me thru life like a motor. All things are passing. Patience obtains all things.”

As always, he says, "Keep smiling."

A Tale of Two Signatures

A TALE OF TWO SIGNATURES

During the trail of James M. Dwyer, in Camden, NJ Federal Courthouse, Dwyer's signature was exhibited on the wall of the courtroom, blown up so everyone could see, and he acknowledged that it was his signature on both copies of the IRS forms submitted, which he couldn't explain and was used as evidence that led to his conviction, and sentencing to nine years in prison.

But what was not shown on the wall, blown up for everyone to see, was the signature on the document that was presented to Dwyer while he was sworn in as a witness at his own trial, a document that when the chief prosecutor presented it to him and asked him if it was his signature, he said, no, and denied it was his signature or that he had ever seen that document before.

Now here was evidence of someone having perpetuated a crime by forging the signature of the person under oath and being prosecuted for crimes that will result in his being sentenced to nine years in prison, based primarily on is signatures on IRS documents, yet there was no further interest in this document, this forged signature, this crime?

It now seems that this document was a parole document related to the previous conviction of Michael McKeever, Dwyer's former Chief Financial Officer, who unknown to Dwyer, had previously been convicted and did time for financial irregularities and embezzlement when he was a senior financial officer at Revlon, a Fortune 500 company.

But since McKeever had died of a heart attack while Dwyer was in the process of purchasing a Philadelphia skyscraper, and the financial problems with Dwyer's company only became apparent after McKeever's death, Dwyer was left holding the bag and had to be prosecuted because McKeever couldn't be.

The prosecutors made the false contention that Dwyer used McKeever's death to hide his own crimes, but they had the evidence that Dwyer didn't know of McKeever's previous crimes in the false signature on the probation report that the prosecutor presented to Dwyer, and Dwyer acknowledged that it was not his signature.

Why would Dwyer acknowledge that it was his signature on the two IRS documents used to prove he was guilty, while the government had in its possession a document that contained a false and forged signature, said to be that of defendant James M. Dwyer, and not even try to determine who signed the false signature?

That's because they knew it was Michael McKeever's signing of Dwyer's name on his parole and probation papers, and provided clear evidence that Dwyer did not know that McKeever was a convict on parole for crimes that Dwyer was now himself being charged with.

Because the prosecutors could no longer get McKeever, who was clearly the guilty party, but dead, and had to go after Dwyer, who was innocent, but still alive, led to the charade that they developed in court to convict an innocent man - James M. Dwyer.

Who has now spent the last six years of his life in prison for crimes he did not commit.

The Flanders Ghost

 

When Jim owned the Flanders he had the Plate Room remodeled and renamed the Board Room.

Here's a photo of the Board Room with one of the Flander's Ghosts in the picture.

While "Emily" is more famous, there's also a waiter in a bow tie seen in a mirror in a photo in the Board Room.

Jim and friend at Flyers

 

Preditory Loansharke Parke Bank

Golf Club Shuts Down

http://www.nj.com/gloucester/index.ssf?/base/news-5/125662022652160.xml&coll=8

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

By Siobhan A. Counihan
scounihan@sjnewsco.com
The Gloucester County Times

WOODBURY The Woodbury Country Club has been shuttered as it seeks to settle millions of dollars in debt through Chapter 7 bankruptcy, but it could be reopened next year by a group of members looking to purchase the property through a liquidation auction.
The historic golf club which had its liquor license suspended this summer, before celebrating its 112th anniversary experienced a brief reprieve from financial difficulties when it seemed like a prospective lender could provide a new opportunity for financing.

"Nothing developed in that regard," said Ira Deiches, the attorney representing the club in federal bankruptcy court. "And the cash flow was simply not sufficient to keep even the current operation going forward. So the board exercised what I think was a reasonable management decision and decided to close the club."

Deiches said that members had been invited to retrieve their clubs or other property from the Delaware Street clubhouse, "so there would not be difficulty for them when and if a trustee is selected to secure the building."

"And we will be working with the bank to take the necessary steps to secure the premises and winterize the course and do what needs to be done," Deiches said.
Parke Bank, the primary creditor in the federal bankruptcy case, is not responsible for the club's closure, Deiches said.

"I think it's important to set something straight: The operation has been terminated," Deiches said. "There will be no more golf at the country club. The board voted to do that. That is not the result of anything that Parke Bank did or did not do."

Gerald O'Connor, a member and bond holder of the club, explained that the previous board of directors incurred a great deal of debt when they had the golf course's greens redone, relandscaped and rebuilt a number of years ago.

"That was extremely expensive," O'Connor said. "That's what saddled the club with a couple million dollars in secure debt. The club had very little if any debt previous to that restructuring of the greens."

He did not specify how much debt the country club is currently carrying.







The club's aging membership also lead to financial instability, as members dropped off and stopped paying dues.
"That was the major cause of the debt burden, which made the club untenable in this much slower economy," O'Connor said.


When the club's members voted in July to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, O'Connor said, they also authorized the board of directors to proceed with Chapter 7 bankruptcy if necessary.
They attempted to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy for several months, but club members were notified over the weekend that the club would be shuttered as they went into Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
"We had an investor that seemed viable," O'Connor said, "but their funding did not come through in the way it needed to be. That's when the board decided this was not going to work. There was just too much unsecured debt to make this viable."
O'Connor, a financial advisor who's also worked as a banker, explained that Chapter 11 doesn't discharge debts but allows a company to reorganize itself. With Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the filer is liquidated.
"A judge is assigned to the bankruptcy, and that bankruptcy judge is the one who determines what can or cannot be done," O'Connor said.
Under Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the country club will likely be auctioned off to the highest bidder so that creditors can be paid back.
If that's the case, O'Connor said he foresees a group of members buying the property and reestablishing the country club sometime next year.
"There are a solid number of members who are in the financial position to do so and have the interest to do so," O'Connor said. "It's just a case of, unfortunately, until the court goes through their process, we have to sit on the sidelines and wait until we're in a legal position to come in and say, ÔHey, we'd be interested in buying the bank's debt and taking the country club back.'"
City Council President Barry Sloane said that would be the best solution possible.
"I think that anybody who lives around there or in the immediate neighborhood is going to want to maintain the country club," Sloane said. "I'm in the neighborhood, and I certainly value it as a centerpiece of this area of town. So it can be somehow maintained or resurrected, that would be really beneficial."
Sloane said it's "a shame that they've had to go this direction" and blame it on the stalled economy.
"I know it's been a part of the social fabric of Woodbury for years and years," Sloane said. "It's a shame to see a tradition like that go."

John Forte - Fort Dix Prison Blues

A rapper's rebirth

I was having a beer one afternoon in Browns Mills, listening to some juke box tunes and talking with a guy who worked as a cook at the prison at Fort Dix.

The cook said that Carly Simon and James Taylor were visiting a prisoner, a record producer he had never heard of but who must be important if celebrities were visiting him.

When I got on the guest list to visit Jim Dwyer I asked Jim about Carly Simon and James Taylor dropping by, and he pointed out the guy they were vising, who was sitting across the visitor's room.

Jim said his name, John Forte, and when I got home I looked him up on the internet and found he is really an interesting guy. Educated and talented, and got mixed up with some wrong dudes in the city.

A few times, more than once, when I was visiting Jim, we'd sit next to John Forte and his visiting friend, and talk.

Forte was lucky to have such powerful friends as Carly Simon, not only a recognized celebrity who people will listen to, but someone who did something to help Forte get out every day he was in prison.

Jim had applied for a commutation of his sentence, something Forte did in 2006, two years earlier, and with tremendous backing on the outside, got a favorable review from the Pardon Attorney and a commutation of his sentence from President Bush shortly before he left office.

Forte's commutation gave Jim hope that his petition would also be favorably reviewed, and many of Jim's friends wrote letters to the President and the Pardon Attorney asking that they give Jim some favorable consideration, but then Bush pardoned a guy, a bad real estate developer in New York who really shouldn't have been pardoned. With the press and public uproar over that pardon, which didn't go through the normal Pardon Attorney channels, it was quickly recinded, and only a few more were forthcoming.

In one of our conversations at Fort Dix, I asked Forte what he could do about the unfair sentencing policies, guys like Jim who is really innocent, and other non-violent felons who should be considered for pardon or commutation of their sentences, and he said, "I can't do anything until I get out of here."

Before he was freed, over the Christmas holidays 2008, Forte and his prison band put on a concert for the other prisoners in the visitor's room.

Jim Dwyer sat down right in front center, and really enjoyed the show.

And now John Forte is out, and performing live in public once again.

He came to Philadelphia last week, did a few interviews and a show at WXPN's World Cafe Live, and played the X-Potential Fest in Camden, which is also sponsored by WXPN, a radio station Forte said he listened to frequently while at Fort Dix.

Here's a story by Dan DeLuca and an interview John did when he was in Philly last week.


Out of prison, John Forté has Carly Simon, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, and former President Bush to thank.

By Dan DeLuca
Inquirer Music Critic

NEW YORK - John Forté, the rapper and singer-songwriter, was not just celebratingStyleFREE, his first new music in seven years, as he performed at a swank nightclub in Manhattan's Meatpacking District.

Looking out through rimless glasses at a packed Bastille Day crowd in a basement boite, his words carried a bit more weight than the usual release-party patter.
"Nine years ago today, I was arrested, and this is a rebirth for me," said Forté, 34, after a set in which he was variously accompanied by guitarist Ben Taylor, rapper Talib Kweli, and guitarist-producer Joel "JK" Kipnis. "This is like an operating room right here, because I feel very much reborn."

Forté's rebirth comes after serving more than half of a 14-year mandatory-minimum sentence for possession with intent to distribute about $1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine. He was arrested July 14, 2000, by DEA agents at Newark Liberty International Airport.

His reemergence - which continues with shows tomorrow at World Cafe Live and Friday at the XPoNential Music Festival in Camden - came through the efforts of two unlikely champions: singer Carly Simon, who is Taylor's mother, and Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R., Utah).

But if Hatch, who has called Forté "a genius," and Simon, who says that working for the reduction of the musician's sentence "became my calling," were the midwives at Forté's rebirth, the delivery-room doctor was even more improbable.

In one of his final acts as president, George W. Bush on Nov. 24, 2008, commuted Forté's sentence. A little less than a month later, Forté walked out of the Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Dix a free man.

StyleFREE, a seven-song EP available on JohnForte.com, marks the return to recording for Forté, who made his name as a producer on the Fugees' mega-selling 1996 CD The Score. Forté, in an interview on the day of his celebration, said the new EP got its name from several things.

"It's a play on words," he says, sitting for an interview at Pulse, the downtown Manhattan studio owned by Kipnis, where Forté created StyleFREE (Theory 7 ***) and I, John, his wide-ranging 2002 artistic breakthrough, recorded under house arrest.
"StyleFREE," he says, "refers back to the halcyon days [in the late 1980s] when teenagers from Brooklyn and the South Bronx and Harlem would converge in Greenwich Village and freestyle for hours."

Raised in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn by his mother, Flo, who stood beaming behind him as he performed last week, Forté said he was "a little black boy who loved classical music." But along with his violin and Vivaldi'sFour Seasons, Forté - who won a scholarship to attend the elite Phillips Exeter Academy prep school in New Hampshire - loved hip-hop acts like the Ultramagnetic MCs. He was one of those kids in Washington Square Park.

"I don't freestyle very much anymore," he says, sitting on a sofa in a sun-filled room, with Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing playing soundlessly on a flat-screen TV. The dreadlocks he hasn't cut in 18 years are bundled atop his head, making him look like a pensive mullah.

"But the style of the music is free." He breaks into a broad smile, and laughs. "And I, along with the music, am free."

For a good part of his life, he wasn't. He spent seven years and eight months "away" - first in a federal prison in Texas, then in Loretto, in western Pennsylvania, and finally in Fort Dix. He was moved there in 2004, thanks to Hatch, not only a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee but also a songwriter. Simon, a Democratic fund-raiser, says she turned to Hatch in frustration after getting little assistance from the other side of the aisle.

In a 2006 letter obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune, Hatch did not deny that Forté was guilty of a crime, but argued that the artist should be freed in part because "he was no risk to society, because he was not a drug-user. And frankly, he's a genius." Hatch, who could not be reached for comment for this story, obtained privileges for Forté to have a guitar, which he taught himself to play in prison. Forté has called Hatch a "superhero of a mentor to me."

In prison, Forté decided that when he got out, "my greatest promise to myself was to not take the present for granted. To not look too far ahead or too far behind, but to really appreciate and savor the moment. . . .

"Twenty or 30 or 40 miraculous things happen to me in the course of a day. Just being able to get a sandwich, or see a child's face - these are the details I missed and I really yearned for."

Today, Forté lives in Manhattan, writes a blog for Tina Brown's Web site, the Daily Beast, and is at work on a memoir for Simon & Schuster. And he leads songwriting workshops for children of inmates.

With StyleFREE, he moves confidently between edgy paranoia ("Nervous") and open-hearted optimism ("Best That Love Could Be"), while displaying a melodic inventiveness and a slightly raspy soul voice. "He has a very unusual blend," says Kipnis, his production partner, "of being a lyricist with a depth that very few lyricists have, in addition to having an incredible melodic sense, and the production chops to really know how to put those components together."

The EP's often-mellow sound will be a surprise to anyone who knows Forté primarily though his hip-hop-centric work with the Fugees, or his 1999 streetwise solo album, Poly Sci.

While at Fort Dix, Forté devoured old-school media. Now, he's a Rip Van Winkle fully awake to the digital age - he's on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

But in prison, he was without an iPod, CD player, or computer, so he turned to publications like the New York Times and Foreign Policy, and listened to music on an AM/FM Walkman, usually tuning in to adult alternative station WXPN (88.5 FM).
"It inspired me," he says, "hearing new groups break on 'XPN, listening to people like Chan Marshall [who records as Cat Power], José González, and Regina Spektor and Sia, and just to be floored by what I considered a return to musicianship. It made me want to spend more time with my guitar."

And Forté had plenty of time on his hands after the events of July 14, 2000.
Forté and his supporters have always insisted he was not what the government made him out to be. "John was not a dope dealer," Simon says.

In a 2002 Rolling Stone jailhouse interview, Forté said he believed he was helping Jamaican drug-dealer Chris Thompson move large sums of cash, which turned out to be two suitcases filled with freezer packs of liquid cocaine. DEA agents, tipped by two drug couriers they captured in Texas, arrested Forté in Newark after he put the suitcases in the back of a taxi.

A year earlier, Simon had taken Forté under her wing and put him up for six weeks at her Martha's Vineyard home. Her son, Ben, and Forté had become best buds after meeting in New York in the '90s. She considers him her "godson," and he calls her "Mama" and his "spiritual guru."

"He was eager to make money," says Simon by phone from the Vineyard, "and acquiesced to people who were using him to be the fall guy."

With the Fugees, Forté didn't get rich, but came into "more money than I'd ever seen," he says. After that run, he was dropped by Sony when Poly Sci underperformed.
"It was a combination of factors - not knowing where the next check was coming from, still desiring to have a career in the business," he says. In addition, "in the industry back in the day, the wrong people were always around."

He doesn't claim to be innocent.

"We committed crimes and were punished for our poor choices," he wrote for the Daily Beast in March, referring to himself and other inmates. Those working on his behalf argued more against what Simon calls "the underlying racism" of the federal sentencing laws that left the Texas judge no option but to sentence Forté to 14 years.

With the help of Hatch and attorney Michael Nussbaum, Simon was able to see to it that Forté's portfolio wound up on Bush's desk.

"I'm grateful," Forté says, when asked what he makes of being given his life back by President Bush - a president who, fellow rapper Kanye West famously contended, "doesn't like black people."

"People ask me that all the time, like they're waiting for me to say something reckless and irresponsible," Forté says. He has no intention of doing so.
Forte says that in prison and out, he has never allowed himself to be consumed by anger at himself, or at anyone else.

"There is an urge to get despondent," he says. "That's the human impulse. A lot of guys will say, 'I gave the feds five years,' or 'I gave the feds eight years.' I fought as hard as I could to not give anybody anything. . . .

"Anger is counterproductive, and I'm all about productivity right now," says Forte, who has a full-length album, Water, Light, Sound, due early next year. "Not to say I'm denying the journey of emotion, the ups and downs. It's the vicissitudes of living. . . . I feel consumed with the alacrity to live."

Now that he's free, he says, "I want to have the time of my life. I need to make a living, but I don't need to be the No. 1 man on any list. I want to be sincere about the craft and the art. It behooves me to love the music I release. Nothing I do will begin in a contrived place. I think the music is going to speak for itself."

Forte’s Back On The Scene

Remember John Forte? Once a celebrated rapper/producer connected to the Fugees, Forte was arrested July 2000 for possession and intent to distribute about $1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine. He was caught coming through Newark Liberty International Airport.

With help in some of the unlikeliest of places (singer Carly Simon, Senator Orrin Hatch and former Prez George W. Bush), Forte didn’t have to serve his entire 14-year sentence.

Now a man with a new lease on life and a new project to promote, StyleFREE, John sat down with the Philadelphia Inquirer over the weekend to talk freedom, CDs and life changes. Below are a few snippets…

On freedom

My greatest promise to myself was to not take the present for granted. To not look too far ahead or too far behind, but to really appreciate and savor the moment… Twenty or 30 or 40 miraculous things happen to me in the course of a day. Just being able to get a sandwich, or see a child’s face - these are the details I missed and I really yearned for.

On success

I want to have the time of my life. I need to make a living, but I don’t need to be the No. 1 man on any list. I want to be sincere about the craft and the art. It behooves me to love the music I release. Nothing I do will begin in a contrived place. I think the music is going to speak for itself.

On anger

There is an urge to get despondent. That’s the human impulse. A lot of guys will say, ‘I gave the feds five years,’ or ‘I gave the feds eight years.’ I fought as hard as I could to not give anybody anything… Anger is counterproductive, and I’m all about productivity right now. Not to say I’m denying the journey of emotion, the ups and downs. It’s the vicissitudes of living… I feel consumed with the alacrity to live.

On StyleFREE

StyleFREE refers back to the halcyon days [in the late 1980s] when teenagers from Brooklyn and the South Bronx and Harlem would converge in Greenwich Village and freestyle for hours… “I don’t freestyle very much anymore… But the style of the music is free. And I, along with the music, am free.
CartelsMusic

Billboard: Did you listen to music while in prison?

Forte: I ended up listening to (Philadelphia’s triple A station) WXPN in the south New Jersey area where I was for at least the last four years of my sentence. I got turned on to so much: Jose Gonzalez, Regina Spektor, Sia, Rachael Yamagata, Cat Power. I actually used those guys as barometers to my songwriting. The beauty of Cat Power is the divine imperfection in her voice. I don’t listen to her expecting any perfect notes and pitches, but I believe her, and that’s what motivates me.

http://www.phrequency.com/blog/INTRVW_John_Forte.html

MONDAY, JULY 20, 2009
INTRVW: John Forte

John Forte has seen his fair shares of ups and downs throughout his career. A musical prodigy and skilled violinist, Forte earned a full scholarship to New Hampshire's Phillips Exeter Academy before working with The Fugees on their Grammy-winning debut, The Score. He worked with Wyclef Jean onThe Carnival before going on to release his own debut, 1998's critically acclaimed Poly Sci.

Then, in 2000, Forte was arrested in Newark International Airport with a suitcase containing $1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine and was subsequently sentenced to the mandatory minimum after being convicted on drug trafficking charges. On November 24th, 2008, the musician received a commutation from President George W. Bush, and was released December 22nd of that year after having served over seven years in federal custody.

Since his return, Forte has hit the studio hard, and in the past several months crafted a brilliant new EP titledStyleFREE. The singer has also had his writing featured on The Daily Beast and has been working with at risk youth through the In Arms Reach program in his native New York. With two shows coming up in the Philadelphia area, we spoke to Forte about his introduction to music, what he does to make his live show stand apart from studio recordings, and cleared up a few misconceptions regarding his release from custody along the way.

P: First off, thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to do this interview. What was it that pulled you into music?

JF: I think that my introduction was when I was eight and I was introduced to violin, so I came into music pretty unconventionally. I mean, of course as a fan growing up in an area where radio was king, but I didn't have a personal involvement until I began playing in the school orchestra in the second grade.

P: You later went on to work with The Fugees recording their debut album, The Score. How did that relationship come about?

JF: It's a very small network of friends in the industry in New York and back in 1995 I was friends with their product manager who was a guy that worked over at Columbia named Jeff Borrows. Jeff Burrows invited me to see the then burgeoning group called The Fugees, two guys and a girl, and invited me to the supper club to come out and see them. It was love at first listen. I met Lauryn that night and we, shortly thereafter became friends. It was through Lauryn's encouragement that I came to the studio during the recording of The Score and played some tracks that I thought the guys might be interested in recording. As fate would have it, I also suggested certain rhymes and certain subjects over those beats, and that's what led to my artist inclusion onto that album, not only as a producer and a writer but also as a performer.

P: To touch briefly on the incarceration issue-

JF: (laughs) I like that, the incarceration issue. It sounds like a paper.

P: I'm sorry, I don't mean to make the issue less personal but I know it can be a touchy subject for some people.

JF: Well, number one I do respect that, but number two I also don't feel that I have the luxury to turn my back on where I spent the last seven years. I'm not embarrassed nor ashamed of it; I went through it and I was fortunate enough to come out of it, so it's something that I address and I feel needs to be addressed, especially given the state of the prison industrial complex.

P: Ok, well to get right into things, as far as the pardon you received, a lot of hip hop fans were surprised by it. Were you aware that it was going to happen?

JF: I have to just say, it's been wildly misreported that it is a pardon; it's a commutation and there is a difference. I still have the conviction on my record, it's just that I served my time by definition. My sentence was commuted but I was not pardoned. I can still, in fact, apply for a pardon, which is something that I would like to do, but I've not done that as of yet. In terms of it being a process, I filed for the commutation in 2006. So it was by some standards a relatively lengthy process. I knew that the process kicked off, although there was never any guarantee as to what the state of the process was.

P: I see. Well, like you said, it has clearly been misreported. From a fan's perspective, because nobody knew the details, everybody was like "George Bush did what?"

JF: You know, I actually went on a blog the other day, and I do that frequently just to check what's being said about me, and somebody had said that the only reasons why I was "pardoned" was because I was obviously an informant. I would have the world know that it's a very public thing, you just have to look for it. You can read anything about my case and you can read anything about my history. There's no sort of secret cabal determining my fate. We pushed hard for it and I had lots of support and we had to base it on the merits. It was a long, hard fight and it definitely wasn't as easy as some paint it to.

P: Wow, well, thank you for clearing that up. There is definitely a ton of misinformation on the matter.

JF: A ton of misinformation, but it is what it is. This is the information age and all of the information that's floating around out there can't be accurate.

P: Where you able to listen to music while you were incarcerated?

JF: I was. The facilities that I did time in had CD libraries. Those weren't all together extensive, but I had access to some new music. I got the bulk of my music from the local radio stations; the college radio stations and the public radio stations. I spent most of my time at Fort Dix, which is Southern New Jersey and they have a radio station called WXPN, and I listened to a lot of new music and it inspired me to morph the direction I currently find myself in. Life being as circular as it is, I actually have a show at the World Café Live in Philly this Monday, which is in the same building as XPN and I'll be at the XPN Music Festival this Friday so things are coming full circle.

P: Getting back your music, the StyleFREE EP, just came out last Tuesday.

JF: Yes it did, but it was released exclusively on johnforte.com last Tuesday. We have it coming to iTunes, and I think the official release date is the 28th, but in the mean time what I wanted to do was to give the fans the opportunity to go to johnforte.com and to get it in advance. The street date is iTunes on the 28th, and we have physical CDs coming out shortly thereafter.

P: Speaking of iTunes and physical formats, what's your take on that? How do you prefer to get your music now?

JF: I get my music through iTunes now. I would love to wax nostalgic and to hang out in CD stores and to listen, but people recommend things to me, I go online and hear 30 second snippets of it, and if I like it, I buy it. There is an obvious convenience to this digital age. I think that in place of CD stores or the record stores of old, we now have communities where we can have our CD stores and record stores wherever we go. Case in point, I went out to a restaurant the other day with an artist I'm working with, Bridget Kelly who is signed to Roc Nation, and we had sort of an iPod swapping session. Although we were there and talking, we were able to exchange what we were listening to while we were sitting there, like "ok, you listen to my iPod and check this song out, and I'll listen to what you want me to listen to" and if we liked it, we could go home and get it or some of us who have the technology could download it right then and there, but now we have these mobile communities of exchanging songs. It's pretty exciting.

P: When were the songs from your EP written?

JF: The vast majority of everything that's on the EP was written while I was away, and the inspiration just came from having the time to be introspective. Having the time to consider what I valued and what my priorities were and are, and wanting to remain true to them. The truest way for me to communicate has always been through song. There was no exception to that while I was away; it was probably truer than every, in fact.

P: As far as the update to your direction goes, songs like “Play My Cards For Me” and “There We Are” for instance, are incredible but also incredibly different from some of your previous work. How would you explain the progression from the artist you were on Poly Sci to where you are now?

JF: I think that, while I have firm roots in hip hop and "rap" if you will, it was with the encouragement of my dear friend, mentor and spiritual godmother Carly Simon I was able to find another voice during a particularly challenging time in my life and that's what ultimately led to me believing in that alternative more, which was finding my singing voice. From Poly Sci we had I, John, which was that first foray into music for the sake of music, rather than categorization. I didn't want to walk into the studio and say I, John Forte am a rapper or I am a singer or I'm a guitarist or a pianist or a violinist. I'm all of those things and I'm not ashamed of any of it, so I go where the inspiration goes. If it leads me to sing, or to have some sort of rock influence or country or gospel or hip hop, then I go with it because it feels right rather than doing it for any other reason.

P: Although you aren't just a hip hop artist, considering your roots in hip hop, if you had to think of yourself in terms of that particular genre where would you fit in?

JF: I think I'm playing my position as a lyricist and I think I identify with hip hop primarily because of the great lyricists that have come before me, and I'd like to think that in that tradition of not just putting words together because they rhyme, but because there's a greater significance and there's an attempt at transcending the moment in order to leave something out of prosperity's sake or for the sake of producing good art, that there is some substance to that. So, hip hop to me, in it's purest form is a lyrical substance combined with rhythm. So I'm doing that part; I'm playing my part. I think it's a very, very exciting time, especially with the technological advancements that we have, that artists are able to reach their fans in ways they never have before and fans are conversely able to communicate directly with the artists, so the chasm that used to exist between the artist and his or her fans has decreased, and I think that as a direct result thereof, the abundance of music will produce some really inspiring songs for the times. I'm just hoping that something that I put out will have a lasting impact.

P: The reaction that I've heard to the EP, even only having been in the public's hands for a couple of days, has been phenomenal. Aside from praise for the single, "Play My Cards For Me", the thing that I keep hearing is that that it's short and people want more music. When can fans expect a full length album?

JF: Well, I'm working on the full length now. I've been home for about seven months and we recorded about 60 songs, and that is six zero (laughs) There is a lot of material. The full length is going to come out in the first quarter of next year, so any time between January, February and March of 2010 expect to hear the full length which is right now called Water, Light, Sound. People ought to be aware that none of the songs from the EP are going to be on Water, Light, Sound and this is a seven song EP. Normally EPs are five songs, so if people want to get down with this, if they want to hold on to this, I highly recommend they get on the train right here, right now, because it's not stopping. When Water, Light, Sound comes out next year, it's going to be 12 songs of something brand new. I'm excited that people want more and I'm excited to give them more.

P: 60 songs? Man, you must always be recording.

JF: I am always recording; I am not stopping. This is a labor of love and I do not complain. I realize how blessed I am to make a living off of doing what I love, and I don't take that for granted. It was an important lesson that I had to learn and I'm fortunate enough to embrace that as a truth.

P: With two local shows coming up, fans in Philly will get a chance to hear your music for the first time in a while. What can those who have not seen your live performance expect to see at a John Forte show?

JF: They can expect to see me playing the guitar, they can expect to see me singing, they can expect to see me rapping, they can expect some intra-song banter, because I don't like to just go through the material, I like for it to be an experience, but what they will also experience, if in fact they have the CD to compare the live show with, is the live show is purposefully designed to be stripped down, so it's not going to sound as produced as the recoded material because I want people to be able to connect to the lyrics on a rather simple level. I want that connection to be as uninterrupted as possible, if you will. I think I'm most effectively able to do that by stripping down the music. So it's raw.

P: Before we close this interview, is there anything you would like to leave the fans with?

JF: Well, I would like to just thank the fans for being so supportive, so kind and so compassionate since my return to music, and just as a reminder to them, I want them to remember many of the young brothers and sisters who might not be visible to them on a daily basis, the young brothers and sisters doing time. I think it's important for us to remember.

John Forte will be playing tonight (July 20th) at University City's World Café Live, located at 3025 Walnut St. Show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $15.

You can also catch Forte at WXPN's Xponential Music Festival 09' this Friday (July 24th). For more information and to order tickets, visit the festival's website.

Jury Question?

JURY QUESTION?

When the New Jersey State Police officer was found not guilty in the death of two teenage girls who died in a crash when he ran a stop sign in pursuit of a speeder, the jury made their decision after reviewing the testimony of the officer.

They had asked the judge if they could review the testimony of the trooper when he described the moments leading up to the accident, but the judge made them review the trooper's entire testimony, which they did before exonerating him.

This reminded me of the moment during Jim Dwyer's trial, when the jury was beginning their deliberations, and asked the judge if they could review the testimony of when Dwyer met Veto Pantelone, the lead banker who made most of the defaulted loans.

Dwyer met Pantelone at a Philadelphia 76ers basketball game, and the next day visited Dwyer at his office on the boardwalk in Ocean City.

Dwyer was already a very successful real estate developer, owning the boardwalk office building motel, the historic Flanders hotel, which he developed into condos, Watsons and the Homestead hotels in Ocean City, the White Sands hotel in Bermuda and he was looking to buy another hotel in Bermuda, two skyscrapers in Philadelphia and the Prudential building in Linwood.

Dwyer didn't seek Pantelone out to borrow money, the bankers came to Dwyer, offering to lend him some. Pantelone had just started a new bank, Park Bank, and the loans he made to Dwyer would be some of his first loans.

Dwyer didn't even need Pantelone, but his chief financial officer, Mike McKeever, convinced him to keep and operate the Flander's banquet facilities and front desk, rather than sell them for others to operate. It would be a good cash flow and he would employee over a hundred people, with a top flight chef, a food and beverage manager and hotel manager at the Flanders.

Also in on the deal, Frank Mahr was Dwyer's main mortgage man. Mahr had introduced Dwyer to Mike McKeever, who they had met at an AA meeting. Dwyer had been good friends with McKeever's brother Billy, and they would do hundreds of deals togther.

During Dwyer's trial, the prosecution tried to present Dwyer, McKeever and Mahr as an "Irish Mafia" who ganged up on Pantelone, the rookie banker, but after McKeever died of a heart attack, and Mahr died of cancer, it was down to Jim Dwyer and Vito Pantelone as who would take the rap, and it wasn't going to be Pantelone. This was a year or two before bankers like Pantelone started getting a bad reputation, and it was Dwyer who was portrayed as the bank robber with a pen instead of a gun.

After he died Dwyer learned that McKeever's father was a big banker in Philadelphia who was friends and business partners with Angelo Bruno, the former head of the Philadelphia mafia. While Dwyer knew Mike McKeever had once been CFO of a Fortune 500 company (Revlon), he didn't know he had done time for embezzelment.

During his trial Dwyer the prosecutor showed Dwyer a document with his name written on it numerous time, but he said it wasn't his handwriting.

Dwyer believes this document was a probation officer's report on McKeever, that would prove that he was not only unaware of McKeever's prior criminal past, but that the government most certainly knew about it and didn't tell him.

When Frank Mahr died, the executor of the estate of the guy who introduced Dwyer to McKeever was none other than Vito Pantelone, the banker.

So it wasn't the "Irish Mafia" who ganged up on Pantelone, it was McKeever, Mahr and Pantelone who ganged up on Dwyer, robbing him of his $200 million real estate empire, his family, and his life as a free man.

In any case, when the jury adjured to consider Dwyer's fate, and determine if he intended to defraud Pantelone when he took out the loans, they asked the judge if they could review the testimony about the circumstances of how Dwyer met Pantelone, and the judge refused.

Instead of allowing the jury to review the testimony, he instructed them to base their judgement on what they remembered of the testimony that was given weeks earlier.

I believe that just as the jury decided in favor of the NJ State policeman after they reviewed his testimony, that Jim Dwyer would have been found innocent if the jury that decided his fate was permitted to review the details of how Dwyer met Pantelone.

It isn't a crime to default on a loan. It was a only a crime if Dwyer took out the loan with the intention of defrauding Pantelone, which he never did.

Why would a successful man who had built up $200 million in real estate assets intentionally commit a crime that would strip away his property, destroy his family and put him away in jail?

Jim Dwyer was targeted by McKeever as a Mark, and with the assistance of Mahr and Pantelone, Dwyer was victimized, and then made out to be the bad guy.

And if the jury had been given the opportunity to know what really happened, Jim Dwyer would never have gone to jail.