I decided to write a series of posts about a few things I feel are necessary to address. Some of these come from questions I've been asked during the course of writing this blog and some are things I realize I've forgotten to elaborate on or mention.
One of the issues I've not fully elaborated on is the muscle condition I was born with. This is due to not wanting to really go into the issue, but I feel it is now necessary. When it comes to my muscle condition, one of the things Ms. Manweiler/Dickerman will likely point to is some of the sporting activities I've been involved with, claiming my condition can't be that bad due to taking part in certain activities. It is true I've been involved with some sports even with my muscle condition - but I pay a price for that participation.
In high school I was on the wrestling team for about a year and a half. I only took part in it because I knew the coach and wanted to help him out, since he was having difficulty getting enough people to fill the roster. I was only able to make junior varsity and only due to the team needing bodies. Thanks to my muscle condition I had a very difficult time keeping up with everyone else. This resulted in me receiving a great deal of harassment and mocking (on top of what I normally received on a daily basis at school) by so-called "teammates". I never wanted to be there, but continued because I wanted to help out the coach. The price I paid for that was being in quite a bit of pain for extended periods. During one particularly heavy training period where I pushed myself too hard, I ended up hurting myself quite badly. Thankfully this happened after school on a Friday, because when I awoke Saturday I was unable to move. My muscles barely responded and I was in substantial pain. After I joined JROTC in 10th grade and was told I had to make a choice between drill team and wrestling, it wasn't a difficult decision. The wrestling team was an activity I did not enjoy and caused me constant pain, while drill team was the complete opposite.
I've also been involved with other sporting activities since - paintball, backpacking and in recent years my company softball team. I pay a price physically to do these activities that I enjoy. Sometimes I push myself too far for two reasons - 1: Because I just want to be able to do what everyone else is able to do and 2: Because it is an activity I enjoy and I don't want to stop doing it despite the pain.
I haven't participated in paintball since the legal fallout of 2006, but during the time I took part in it I had to be very careful. I wanted to do more than what my body was capable of handling. In one instance during a "woods-ball" game at the wooded field in Fort Eustis Army Base, I pushed myself too hard and it had consequences. Another player and I were sniping from the back of the field while calling out the other teams positions, when we had to move up after some of our teammates in front were tagged out. We heard calls from the remaining ones in front that they needed some help. I provided covering fire for the other guy while he ran up to a bunker. He then stopped and began providing covering fire for me to move up. As this was several games in during a long day of play my body was already screaming at me to slow down, because I had been pushing myself all day to keep up with the Army guys who were playing. I decided to ignore what my body was telling me.
I sprinted up as fast as I could to get to the position I needed to be in. I began to stumble as the muscles in my legs started cramping up. Then my legs simply stopped working - I mean that literally, they STOPPED in mid run. I took an immediate and hard dive into the dirt. Earlier in the day my remote line for my CO2 tank broke and I was forced to attach the bottle directly to the gun. My fall resulted in ripping the bottle and its attachment point right off of the gun. It actually gave me a convenient excuse to sit for a moment and let my legs start working again, while I and one of the referees kept an eye on the CO2 bottle as it emptied itself. I then hobbled off the field and left for the day (I had a backup gun but I was physically done for the day). When I've mentioned to others in the past how I broke the gun, I never admitted what really happened. I just told them that I tripped on an obstacle. The paintball gun never got repaired - before I could ship it off for repairs I was arrested over the issues with Ms. Manweiler and obviously had bigger priorities.
Backpacking is another hobby I enjoyed, though yet again it causes me pain. While I've been slowly updating old equipment, I haven't bothered trying to hike/backpack yet until I get myself up to a certain physical level. If I jump right into it without preparing myself, I'll have a big problem. Another activity has been playing on my company softball team. To give you an idea of just how much my muscle condition affects me, last week on Monday evening I went to an indoor batting cage for some practice (for a Tuesday game that was canceled due to a wet field). I believe the tally is about 80 pitches that evening. Though this took place on Monday, I was still in pain on Thursday of that week and still stiff on Friday. The muscles in my arms, back, neck and even legs still were in pain for days after the exertion.
I do these activities because I enjoy them despite the pain they cause. I've lived with pain like this all my life so I'm used to shoving it aside. But sometimes that pain gets too much and my muscles can and have quit on me. Since I'm doing these activities voluntarily I can stop at any time. I can't do that if it involves my job - like the one I was forced to get right after leaving jail in 2006. Since I was the new guy and untrained in their line of work, I was often used as the "mule". I had to haul heavy equipment and materials up ladders onto building rooftops (also afraid of heights when not in an airplane) all throughout the work day, five days a week. Since it was my job I can't just call it quits when I am in pain. I didn't want to tell anyone out of fear of being fired, and due to my size everyone automatically assumes that what I was doing was something I could handle. It eventually caught up to me and contributed to the loss of the job, which I've already gone over in other posts and thus won't discuss here.
I've posted information on the specifics of my condition previously, including one letter where the doctors were initially analyzing the condition in my childhood, so I won't go into great detail. Doctors have told me that my muscle condition isn't something they've seen before. It isn't genetic as no one in my family has it or anything that can even lead to it. For whatever reason I was hit hard by a number of conditions as I was developing that were never in my family. The two major ones being an abnormal muscle condition and a malrotation of my intestines that nearly killed me as an infant. It required emergency abdominal surgery due to blood vessels constricting and actually killing off my intestines as they tried to rotate back into correct position. I believe this took place during the first month or two of my life. The surgeon told my mother that he basically "cut and pasted" me back together. One nurse in later years looked through my medical records and commented that she was amazed at just how much of my intestines the surgeon had to cut out of me. After the operation the surgeon commented that I shouldn't have even lived as long as I did prior to the surgery, and that I definitely shouldn't have survived the procedure.
None of the doctors know why any of these medical issues happened to me. I was told the muscle condition is essentially a "cousin" to muscular dystrophy, except it doesn't have the severity - meaning that I won't waste away and die from it. Essentially the dying off of my muscle cells only happens during heavy physical exertion. My cells die off quicker and are replaced more slowly than a normal person. I can eventually work myself up to a decent level of fitness, but it is a much longer road than a regular person and it is a much more painful process for me.
This means that I'm also limited in employment, as I can't do jobs requiring heavy physical labor. Unfortunately that was exactly what I had to do after my release from jail and it didn't end well. My job opportunities are extremely limited further due to the false felony charge. Police officers and lawyers who have been told the situation can't believe I have the job I do now. Every felon in the jail cell with me worked minimum wage jobs involving physical labor, like busting concrete for a construction company. That is the fate of most felons. I'm still not off the hook, as I have delayed doing certain things because I know the felony will be an issue - and it will almost certainly cost me this job at some point. Travel to other countries, which will eventually be required of me, is also another problem that I have a draft post in the works on to go into further detail. Not to mention that working as a defense contractor always carries a risk - if the contracts dry up the company can't afford to keep its workforce going. Just because this company hired me doesn't mean that others will.
All of this isn't something I like going into as I'm a private person. But I feel people need to read about things like this so that they get a glimpse of the true face of the Manweiler family, and so that they can get an idea of the true scope of the damage caused by Ms. Manweiler and the Charlottesville law enforcement. Ms. Manweiler/Dickerman knows I have a muscle condition, she knew it even before my arrest. She may point to me being in wrestling in high school, but what you need to know that she was also in gym classes with me and saw me walk the jogging track with the asthmatics. She knew I had physical issues with my body, though she wouldn't have known the exact specifics. A family friend who knows the story of this legal issue and knows about my medical conditions once stated, "If only this woman and her family knew what they really did here". My response was that she and her parents knew damn well what they did, they just couldn't care less.
This is just one of the many things I intend on having follow Ms. Manweiler and her family for the rest of their lives. This woman lied about what took place and manipulated the law enforcement into giving me a felony I didn't commit. This resulted in a person with essentially a physical disability having to do manual labor that caused them considerable pain because of this false charge. This woman and her family knew exactly what they were doing in 2006, including the fact that they were doing this to someone with a physical impairment. Any claims to the contrary by Ms. Manweiler are just an attempt to hide her own guilt from others. Thankfully this blog receives regular visits from those who know Ms. Manweiler or have professional dealing with her. Based on the ISPs listed this has involved everything from politicians and lobbyist groups to even other law firms. I am grateful for the opportunity to show everyone the kind of person Ms. Manweiler really is deep down. She was nothing more than a narcissistic bully in her youth and that has never changed.
