17 迷：真假采访（8）

What did you imagine was going to happen if you didn’t talk to her?

I thought since I didn’t cooperate with her she would just make a little blurb about me in the story and then she would move on to whatever this ‘new evidence’ was or whatever Adnan had to tell her. I didn’t think I would be demonized.

Have you ever listened to the podcast?

I’ve never been able to listen to the podcast. My wife reads the transcripts and tells me about them. The first time I started to get really scared and feel jeopardized by ‘Serial’ was in the middle of the night, one night maybe around the second or third week of the show. One of my buddies from Baltimore calls me and says, ‘Hey, man they got your voice across the radio and shit, man, talking about shit that happened a while ago. They’re saying your name and shit. They’ve got you plastered across the Internet.’

Suppose Koenig came here and said up front that, based on her conversations with Adnan, revealing the evidence in the case, and talking to other people, that she believed that there was a good chance that Adnan is likely innocent. If she told you that up front, and was completely transparent about what she thought about this case, would you have felt more comfortable talking to her?

No. I would have told her the same thing: There’s nothing that’s gonna change the fact that this guy drove up in front of my grandmother’s house, popped the trunk, and had his dead girlfriend in the trunk. Anything that’s going to make him innocent doesn’t involve me. Hae was dead before she got to my house. Anything that makes Adnan innocent doesn’t involve me. There is a specific point where I became involved in this. What happened before that, I don’t know. Maybe Adnan had something to tell her, something magical that happens that changes all the facts in the case. But she can talk to him about that. I didn’t have anything to add. There’s no point in me participating in that conversation.

If you’re telling the truth, then what harm would it be to talk to Koenig?

I am telling the truth, and look what happens when I didn’t talk to her. Look how she’s demonized me. And I feel like if I did talk to her, it would have given her twice as much ammo to twist my words. She came to my house and frightened me and my wife. Then [Julie Snyder] came out and said that I had ‘animal rage.’

Would you have talked to another reporter?

Before this podcast thing happened, no. Only if Hae’s family wanted me to so they could have some sort of peace. I don’t want to talk about this for entertainment purposes.

Why did you decide to talk to me?

I’m trying to clear my name. I’m worried for the safety of my family. I think the truth is important, and I’m trying to tell it–not for entertainment value.

In what ways has your life changed? {End Part II Begin Part III}

Do you ever read Reddit? Have you read the subReddit about this case and about me?

Yes.

Everything’s changed.

What has your life been like since “Serial” first aired?

The thing that’s been the most scary for my family has been people showing up at my house. Twice I’ve caught people videotaping our home and me.

When did you first notice strangers around your house?

Right before Thanksgiving. I caught somebody taking a picture of my house.

You asked me if I read Reddit. Do you?

I can’t. It makes me too upset. My wife has taken screenshots of direct threats and serious accusations about my character.

How does she respond to it?

She’s devastated. Because we have young kids around the house, and we used to let them walk to school. Now we don’t, because we don’t know if someone from the Internet is going to take their picture, or harass them. And she is just trying to be protective of them.

Have you filed a police report?

Yes. We filed a police report. Someone reached out to my wife, somebody that she didn’t know, saying that she was worried for my family. Then this person said she was worried because somebody posted our address on a public forum and said they planned to confront me.

A lot of this information, I assume, has been posted on Reddit?

Yeah. Now it looks like the moderators of the forum try to delete any personal information of ours after it’s posted. But they weren’t that good about it when the show first started. Sometimes stuff would be left on Reddit about me for days and weeks at a time before it had to be checked, and the post deleted. People were able to go onto my Facebook page and pull pictures of my kids, my dog, my house, my wife. People have also posted information about my family, criminal charges against me, my dad and my uncle. I don’t know why that is at all relevant to what Adnan did. I mean, I know that I was a criminal, and I know that even after this happened, I didn’t have an occupation. I mean, I kept doing my job of criminal shit. But I’m past all that now. I made a good home for my wife and kids.