I last wrote about another knock on my door — almost a month to the day after the first, anonymous detectives, and my suspicion that said anonymous detectives could be any random prankster off the street given the fact that conservative trolls had published my address and phone number online multiple times.
Turns out, the detective was legit and the opaque, ominous nature of the voicemails was by design. Are you ready for this? Drum roll please…
Detective Last Name is with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force out of one of their New York field offices. What started as a 2nd-hand complaint from a parent at Rutgers over tweets (because their version of what happened in class is patently false) — claiming their white child wasn’t safe on campus because of me — has now escalated to an open investigation by the FBI. And that’s with the actual student never even making a statement. Wild.
The FBI has has an open investigation on me for terrorism. That sentence is B-A-N-A-N-A-S. The fact that it’s not just a sentence and in fact real life? Whew.
My feeling that something was “off” about the voicemails wasn’t wrong — just misdirected. Let me back up. I tried to return Detective Last Name’s call twice on 11/19/16, the day it was received alongside his 6:45 am surprise visit. Hearing his automated voicemail with no additional information on who he was didn’t assuage the premonition I had, so I chose not to leave messages.
Instead, on advice from an attorney at her job, my sister returned the call on my behalf and asked for a call back without saying who she was, just that she needed to speak to him about a pressing matter. The next morning Detective Last Name called me again and left an identical message to the one the day before. He also returned my sister’s call.
He knew who she was immediately though she hadn’t left a name. “You’re his Kevin Allred’s sister, right?” He proceeded to tell her he worked at the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York and that that was all the information she needed in order to verify his identity (which she subsequently did). He confirmed there was an open investigation on me, referred to them from law enforcement. Assuring her I wasn’t in any trouble, he said they needed to ask me some questions to settle the matter and asked why I was avoiding them.
He claimed they were trying to make it as easy as possible on me, which is why he came to my apartment in the first place. I fundamentally disagree with that categorization though: showing up unannounced at someone’s apartment at 6:45 am seems more like an attempt to catch that person off guard, or throw them off guard, than it does a benevolent attempt to alleviate their stress and/or concern. But that’s my own conjecture after the fact.
My sister explained the situation to Detective Last Name: that I was unsure of his identity given the vague messages; the reasons I’d be leary to pick up the phone or trust law enforcement in general given previous threats and past experience over the psych evaluation; that I had no reason to believe there was any additional kind of investigation being conducted after RUPD closed its own. I wasn’t hiding or avoiding, I was merely being cautious and had every right and reason to be.
He said he understood completely. The sentiment is greatly appreciated but I still have no intention of speaking to any more law enforcement agents without legal representation. My sister told him I was in the process of securing legal counsel before returning his calls, but would be happy to cooperate once a lawyer was squared away.
In the meantime, I scoured my contacts list and asked for referrals all around. I’d never actually needed a lawyer before and didn’t know how to go about finding one, especially one with expertise in these particular areas. Though I’d been in touch with a number of lawyers for various parts of this ongoing case, they’re all based in New Jersey and can’t officially represent me on this, given I was contacted by FBI in New York.
I reached out to my union, the ACLU in New Jersey and New York, PEN America who have been public advocates for me and included my case in a supportive letter-writing campaign (see the previous Interlude piece), my personal friends, and even Twitter followers. Literally, anyone I could possibly think of that could pass along a name or number. And I got a few helpful leads.
I’m still trying to consult with legal representation and formally find counsel before agreeing to any interview the FBI deems necessary. I have’t done anything wrong and certainly pose no actual threat, but I still won’t speak to anyone without a lawyer. And I’ll continue to document everything, despite the escalation, because telling this story is the only thing keeping me from feeling hopeless and helpless.
