00:00:10
h hi it's Stan please leave a message it was January 22nd 1998 it was Stan's 38th
00:00:45
birthday he didn't come to work and that's not like Stanley there's a very diligent person with a very high-profile
00:00:50
job and he had an appointment that he didn't show up for and didn't call anybody about
00:00:59
[Music] a federal prosecutor was missing and nobody knew where he [Music] was a group of his friends were throwing
00:01:10
him a party at a club in downtown Manhattan it was his birthday and he didn't come to his own birthday
00:01:18
party did he go out did he go partying did he drink was he using drugs was he involved in some sex
00:01:28
capades you know there was saying no you know he's kind of a quiet mild maned guy
00:01:32
like he wouldn't just disappear he wouldn't just not come to [Music] work one possibility was that he was at
00:01:41
home either ill or or sleeping or passed out when we arrived at Stanley's apartment the superintendent didn't have
00:01:49
the key so one of the guys followed the building superintendent up the fire escape and the superintendent used his
00:01:56
elbow to smash in Stanley's Kitchen windows there was nothing that indicated that
00:02:03
Stanley had been there recently then somebody pressed the answering machine on his
00:02:11
telephone hi it's Stan please leave a message you know beep happy birthday from some friend or
00:02:19
relative and then the third message was this is your credit card company calling
00:02:24
to say there's unusual activity on your card a couple of beeps after that was even
00:02:33
[Music] worse a person called and she said I found your wallet in Bedford stent in
00:02:40
the garbage and that was really scary bford serson is a tough neighborhood in Brooklyn what would his wallet be doing
00:02:51
BF [Applause] serson somebody said maybe he's lying in an Alleyway somewhere bleeding
00:03:01
and somebody else said or maybe or he was [Music] dead this is unbelievable this got to be
00:03:11
something more to the story as we started to look into it people were thinking this is just really
00:03:17
way too crazy to be true [Music] [Music] [Music] this was clearly a serious item in New
00:03:59
York City a federal prosecutor is missing he hasn't been heard from for 24 hours
00:04:07
people are scared there was sort of this hysteria in the apartment with his friends there
00:04:13
you know everybody had their Theory you know where Stan was and what happened to
00:04:18
Stan certainly was possible to me that he'd been murdered you know we're sort of trying
00:04:23
to come up with a plan of action when the phone rings we sort of looked at each other
00:04:28
and we're like well somebody get it so I I answer the phone and uh and the voice
00:04:35
on the other end of the phone says this is Stan who is this and so I tell him who I
00:04:43
am I say are you all right and he says yes I'm all right but I was kidnapped and we were sort of kind of
00:04:51
stunned by that you know he was kidnapped I mean who would kidnap a United States Attorney
00:05:03
I just ran for it I ran across Prospect Park West and went down one of the side streets on my
00:05:13
way to 7th Avenue there was a pizza place that was open and I and I start saying to the guy
00:05:20
behind on the camera can I use your phone can I use your phone I was just kidnapped can I use your
00:05:25
phone I'm a I'm I'm a federal prosecutor but but but I made it out you know can I please use your phone I
00:05:32
got to call people he looked at me like uh I had three heads and I said Stan where are you all
00:05:44
we got on the phone was I'm at a pizzeria in Brooklyn stay where you are we're coming to get you stay where you
00:05:51
[Music] are we piled in cars I went with one agent [Music] remember feeling incredibly frustrated
00:06:03
because he wasn't zooming through the red lights when the agents and detectives picked up Stan in Brooklyn he was in
00:06:11
front of a pizzeria right where he said he would be when we drove up and I saw him he
00:06:19
looked almost like a skeleton he looked exhausted he was really really nervous um you know looked like um he'd been up
00:06:27
all night so they drove me from Brooklyn to the 9th precinct in the East Village and
00:06:34
they brought me inside and they put me in a room and uh they started questioning him
00:06:40
and he started going through his story and it wasn't until you know hours later that we would start hearing you know the
00:06:45
details of that evening you know between the drugs and the sex people were like you know this
00:06:53
doesn't make sense at all it was a pretty bizarre story um that most people were having trouble
00:07:03
embracing you're kind of rolling your eyes thinking oh my gosh this is crazy this is
00:07:08
[Music] crazy the night of January 21st 1998 I went on a blind date didn't work out an hour later I got
00:07:19
on the train to come [Music] home it was a freezing cold night one of those bitterly cold uh winter New York
00:07:35
nights there was nobody around it was roughly 11:00 I was walking down 10th Street toward Fifth
00:07:43
Avenue in the village and as I get toward the corner of 10th Street and Fifth Avenue from out
00:07:53
of nowhere I didn't see it I didn't hear it before I feel a tug on my elbow I spin around there's a big fat black
00:08:05
barreled automatic machine gun sticking in my gut there were two guys behind me shoved me from behind they pushed me out
00:08:13
into the street move move don't say a word just get in the car [Music] they put me in the back seat of the
00:08:33
car I could see the outline of the word Lexus on the dash so I knew we were in Lexus the guy in front of me starts
00:08:43
talking what's your name Stanley Stanley let me tell you what we're going to do we're going to take you to the cash
00:08:50
machine and we're going to get your money and if you with us we will kill you that guy was named
00:08:57
Lucky the toughest Thug was called s he was across from me to the right and almost by accident I didn't
00:09:05
want to I looked at him our eyes met and Sen stuck his pistol in my face and he screamed at me like got big eyes I
00:09:13
should kill you for those big [Music] eyes the guy on I right his name was Ren Ren seemed to be more of a henchman
00:09:25
he seemed to be the one who would just do what they told him they took me to the cash machine at 23rd
00:09:32
Street and 6th Avenue lucky goes in to get money so they asked me how much I had in
00:09:39
my savings account and I knew I had to tell the truth because all I have to do is go put in my PIN number and they can
00:09:43
know everything so I said somewhere around $110,000 they heard that number and they
00:09:50
were amazed well that's the point where the plan shifted they drove towards the Westside
00:09:59
Highway way and lucky started explain to me what their plan was he said we're going to hold you overnight and tomorrow
00:10:07
morning we're going to take you to a bank and you're going to withdraw $50,000 and if you don't cooperate we'll
00:10:14
kill you and then he ordered Ren to blindfold me so Ren pulls my scarf off and wraps
00:10:26
it wraps it around my eyes you know my own scarf ties it tight then he shoved me down on the seat next to him in a
00:10:34
fetal position and they drove I didn't know where we were going was too early to think at that
00:10:46
point I was just petrified it was it was the most horrifying moment you can imagine
00:10:59
they decided that they had caught something that they wanted to keep for a while that was
00:11:04
[Music] me the agents interviewed me with all deliberate seriousness and they kept me
00:11:26
there for hours Stan told a story you know he's kidnapped off the streets at gunpoint
00:11:35
but uh I had absolutely no clue that they didn't find my story credible not a [Music]
00:11:54
clue you got to keep in mind I'm blindfolded what you learn if you're blindfolded is
00:12:01
you can pick up a lot with through your sense of hearing when we go through the tunnel
00:12:08
that's at the bottom of Manhattan I know we're through that tunnel cuz it sounds
00:12:17
different and few minutes later I could hear us going over a bridge so I knew We're Going Somewhere
00:12:26
in Brooklyn or Queens [Music] they pushed me out of the car I went up couple of steps through a doorway couple
00:12:42
steps more through another doorway down a long thin hallway and then they shoved me up the
00:12:50
stairs and now I'm trapped in somebody's [Music] apartment and I can still see a little
00:12:59
bit out the bottom of my blindfold I can see two mattresses on the floor it looks
00:13:05
like a place where people just crash the most obviously terrifying violent member of the gang was sent
00:13:16
actually I could practically feel him close to me at one point you know pointing the gun at me and saying
00:13:22
Stanley you ever see one of these guns all I got to do is pull a trigger and Bam Bam Bam your brains will be all over
00:13:28
that wall repeatedly they kept cocking and uncocking the guns so that I could hear
00:13:44
it they demanded my father's address it was in my wallet lucky told me that if I
00:13:51
didn't cooperate with them at the bank in the morning he would kill my father that they would break every bone in my
00:13:57
father's body [Music] it always drove me crazy that they picked him of all people because
00:14:08
apparently they thought he was some rich Wall Street lawyer type Stan was a federal prosecutor that
00:14:17
was a very important job he a person who wants to make an impact on the world and in many ways
00:14:23
wants to make the world a better [Music] place Stanley certainly not born with a
00:14:30
silver spoon he was the kind of guy who had to work for everything he had I grew up lower middle class in
00:14:37
Brooklyn we didn't have a lot of money I spent all my time out on the streets I was a little guy a little
00:14:46
skinny guy so talking your way out of things was one good skill that you that you needed to learn
00:14:54
[Music] a few minutes later I could hear the front door of the apartment open and I
00:15:08
could hear a bunch of footsteps I could hear them talking hey D hey Mystic what's up how you doing
00:15:16
how'd you do out on the street Mercedes and Mystic come into the apartment these two teenage girls who
00:15:26
are prostitutes and they're friends of Ren and Sen so a few minutes after that lucky left
00:15:34
the apartment and you know you got the feeling that people were kind of settling
00:15:45
in somebody struck a match and you could smell the marijuana [Music] so then there're smoking pot and you can
00:16:04
hear that there are sexual acts going on and you know this was awful good thing that I was blindfolded cuz I
00:16:14
couldn't see what was happening around me so here is Stan this sort of reserved us attorney is sitting on a mattress
00:16:20
while two people are having sex next to him um and then another couple is having
00:16:25
sex across the room my gosh this didn't happen this guy got lost for 24 hours and he needs a good
00:16:33
story and then you know when it was over there was a calm in the room so s asked
00:16:39
me Stanley what you know what would you be doing if um if we hadn't grabbed you on the street I'd be meeting my friends
00:16:47
for a concert because that day was my birthday and they heard that and they just burst out laughing oh my God we
00:17:00
kidnapped the on his birthday then s says you know it's your birthday you deserve something nice for
00:17:10
your birthday how about a from one of these girls These are nice girls and I said No
00:17:17
thanks and then they kept pushing it Stanley you should take it cuz you know what I think the girls like you so I
00:17:24
said you know what the only reason they like me is cuz most of my face is covered
00:17:33
here's a guy who's been kidnapped you know he's sitting there and they're offering him oral sex a lot I think the
00:17:38
more uh seasoned individuals didn't believe it at all I can't explain it I just tried to make them not dislike me
00:17:49
so that they wouldn't want to kill [Music] me in the middle of the night s and ren
00:17:57
were openly discussing what their plans were with me and S wasn't happy with the
00:18:03
plan and he didn't think it was going to work it's not going to look right it's going to look odd for two
00:18:11
black men to be taking this sort of nerdy white man into the bank and he's you know withdrawing all this
00:18:20
money so luy comes back at 4 in the morning and Ren and S say look we got to talk to you and they go outside the room
00:18:31
they talked for a couple of minutes and then lucky pops his head back in the room and he says Stanley tell me again
00:18:39
what you do for a living and I say I'm an assistant us attorney and he says us oh no the FBI is going to be after
00:18:53
[Music] us and that's when lucky told me that they changed the plan and he says Stanley look I got good news for you
00:19:02
we're going to be taking you back I'm going to come back here at 7:00 in the morning we're going to take you back and
00:19:07
let you [Music] go they stayed outside the room at that point talking so did I think they might
00:19:14
be planning to kill me sure until this thing was over I knew that my life was hanging by a thread the
00:19:22
whole time [Music] w [Music] in the early morning hours things got very quiet there wasn't much
00:20:09
activity and you know I could feel that Dawn had come I could hear buses going by and I also could hear seagulls
00:20:31
[Music] and then this guy Lewis shows up and he's renting the space to them sen and ren have decided that they
00:20:43
want to get out of there they've got things to attend to so they tell Lewis here's our guns you stay here you hold
00:20:50
these guns you watch this guy until we get back Louis so offered me food actually all of them offered off me
00:20:58
food at one point or another I thought about trying to convince Lewis to let me go cuz there
00:21:11
were hours where the other guys went out he's there holding the guns he's with the
00:21:18
girls but he was a volatile paranoid scared kind of guy and what I was really afraid of is that if I tried
00:21:28
to go down that path if I tried to convince him to let me go he'd freak [Music] out I mean just pull the trigger on that
00:21:38
Tech 9 multiple bullets are going to come out per second I'm done you know in 25 hours of being
00:21:49
blindfolded and sitting on a mattress you have a lot of time to think and what I was thinking was if I don't get killed
00:21:57
I'm going to gather enough evidence so that these guys get put away and they don't do it to anybody else
00:22:05
[Music] again I had a lot of clues that could help them find these guys I could actually see the pattern on the tiles as
00:22:16
we went into the building and I tried to memorize the pattern I could tell it was a Railroad
00:22:25
Flat in an old tenement building so I counted the steps of the first landing and I counted it to the second
00:22:31
Landing they tortured me they threatened to murder me they threatened to kill my
00:22:35
father I couldn't possibly allow them to do that to another person ever I was absolutely devastated by the
00:22:45
thought that anybody would hurt my father during the interview when Stan was sharing about his dad and his
00:22:54
concerns about his father you could see a physical change now it was becoming [Music]
00:23:04
emotional this is something he was feeling and for me as an investigator it's telling me that he's
00:23:10
telling me the truth you know we ended up after several hours of talking to him you know believing what he
00:23:19
[Music] said hour after hour goes by and nobody knows where's lucky nobody is telling me
00:23:34
why he didn't come back nobody is telling me why they haven't set me [Music] [Music]
00:23:50
free about six or 7:00 Ren and S came back so there was a period of a few hours when things got light lighter and
00:23:59
you know they started getting friendly they wanted legal advice I think one of them had gotten into some sort of a car
00:24:04
accident and uh he had some injuries from it he wanted to know Stan's opinion that would he be able to have a lawsuit
00:24:10
and he wanted to know how much his case was worth he had a lumbar problem he had
00:24:14
to go to a chiropractor once a week he wanted to know how much he could get for his case he had a lawyer but he had look
00:24:21
he had me there he had a chance for a second [Music] opinion and then there was this whole
00:24:28
period where everybody sat around like we were at a dinner party and starts telling jokes and they kept calling me
00:24:34
Stephen and I kept correcting them and said my name's not Stephen it's it's Stanley and at one point Ren says oh
00:24:40
sorry Stanley our mistake Steven's the guy we did this to the other night and then somewhere around 10:00 at
00:24:52
night lucky comes back comes bursting through the door right away the mood changed lucky was the boss he's back
00:25:00
they're not going to be joking around anymore everybody is dead serious everybody is quiet and he says come on
00:25:07
let's go and boom like with military Precision they marched me out the [Music] door I started to get very nervous I
00:25:18
started to feel palpitations in my heart I got a sweat on the back of my neck and
00:25:25
my forehead I felt a little sick lucky stopped at the doorway turned back to me and said Stanley let me ask you
00:25:39
something if you had the chance to put me away for life would you do it look you already told me you know
00:25:49
where I live you know where my father lives I don't know who you are I don't know where we are
00:25:58
and you say you're going to release me unharmed I don't think this has to go any
00:26:05
further so nobody says a word lucky gets out of the car it's until a minute later I hear the
00:26:12
trunk opening and then I heard the sound of duct tape being pulled off of a roll and it's that point that I was
00:26:22
positive that my life was over I was sure they were going to kill me right then and there
00:26:44
is [Music] suddenly your whole life flashes in front of you you'll never call somebody you'll
00:27:16
never watch a movie you'll never sit down to a meal you'll never meet somebody with the hope of getting
00:27:25
married all those things that make up life for me in that moment when I heard the
00:27:31
duct tape pulling off the roll that was over and I and and that was really the most terrific feeling anybody can
00:27:42
[Music] imagine so second later I heard lucky applying the tape to the plastic that
00:27:50
was covering the broken window on his car and then it slowly dawned on me that I had just made a big mistake overnight
00:27:58
somebody had broken into his car smashed the passenger side window so uh he was just fixing the
00:28:05
[Music] plastic they kept driving and drove for I don't know maybe another 10 or 15
00:28:15
minutes and then they stopped the car [Music] again and the guy to my right says should we
00:28:26
give him $20 for a c of course it was $20 of my own money but that sounded courteous but
00:28:33
they might have been tricking me I really didn't know that same guy opened the door and
00:28:41
and they and and he took me outside and I'm still blindfolded and he said put your hands
00:28:47
up and he says you just [Music] walk so I took a step and then another step and eventually I think I can very gently
00:29:03
hear the Lexus pulling away so I said are you there and nobody answered and I ripped the blindfold off
00:29:19
and I spun around and they were gone and that was the happiest moment of my life it
00:29:31
was it was it was like it was ecstasy it was pure ecstasy I just ran for it yeah I recognized that it was
00:29:41
Prospect Park I grew up there I I was there all the time so I was rushing to find a business
00:29:48
a restaurant something like that where I could go in and make a call and then when the phone call came in that's when
00:29:53
the energy in the room sort of went from 0 to 60 just stay where you are stay where you
00:30:00
are the the precinct was crazy it was a buzz with energy you know they debriefed him and
00:30:07
they started typing up the report and it was as she was typing it we were pulling
00:30:11
it off she would get a half a page typed and we would yell print it she'd print it and then we would run with
00:30:21
it we had one group of people you know running down you know Ren and Sen we had another group that was looking for luck
00:30:28
looking for that Lexus we had people looking for the prostitutes we ran Mercedes that
00:30:35
nickname through the NYPD database found a young female who'd been arrested a number of times for
00:30:42
prostitution our job was to try to see if we could locate Mercedes and interviewer I'd seen a number of
00:30:54
pictures of her from you know her wrap sheets there's these two girls standing in front of this building as soon as we
00:31:00
walk up I recognize uh Mercedes right from the pictures so I actually say to her hey
00:31:07
Mercedes how you doing you know I said Hey listen we got to talk to you for a minute when you do an interview with
00:31:15
somebody what you want to do is you want to basically Elevate the level of threat
00:31:19
towards them which make them feel like they're in a world of trouble you have no idea I said you and your friends have
00:31:26
basically done one of the worst things you could could possibly ever do you kidnapped a US attorney and I said I'm
00:31:31
an FBI agent and I said and if you ever been in trouble before you have no idea what kind of trouble you're going to be
00:31:36
in now so she gave up everything that she knew you know she started rambling off
00:31:43
lucky and Ren and S and all of a sudden it was like oh my gosh you know everything that Stan had told us she she
00:31:50
confirmed for us she said she had felt sorry for Stan and had offered him oral sex because it was his birthday and she
00:31:55
felt bad for him based on the information that she provided um we had lucky cell phone
00:32:02
number every time he he turned his phone on we were able to see what cell tower it was pinging off of so we were able to
00:32:08
sort of narrow down where he was so um we had agents and detectives out in brookin a lot of police work is boring
00:32:21
but when you get to the Hunts there's nothing like it nothing like it I always love the hunt
00:32:37
the Lexus had a broken window we were told but we also had a plate number and it was about 9:00 at night when the when
00:32:44
Alexus drove by us so that's when uh our heart started beating and we uh gave Pursuit you know or you believe that
00:32:57
they're all armed and and you know you have to really be careful at this point because we just don't know what's going
00:33:02
to be the next move on their part well we pull them over we're on both sides of the car right uh we all
00:33:11
have our guns drawn and we're telling them we want to see their hands we want to see all their hands the Pips we
00:33:17
pulled out of the car were lucky and sent we cuffed each one of them and we got into our cars and we all drove back
00:33:23
them in had Ren was picked up by uh a couple of other Det Ives uh probably not much
00:33:31
later criminals have the idea when they come into an interrogation room they're going to outsmart me my feeling is if
00:33:38
they had brains right we would be in trouble [Music] [Music] my end goal is to solicit the
00:34:08
truth I want to know the truth if I have to cry or laugh in an interrogation room to get the truth I'll
00:34:20
do that if I have to be their friend I'll do [Music] that the first interview I conduct is
00:34:39
with the defendant lucky he kept saying I didn't doing anything wrong I know my rights and he says I'm having a lot of
00:34:49
trouble remembering even what's going on the last few days he said I had a very very
00:34:54
bad time it really screwed up my mind I said well why don't you tell me about your bad
00:35:03
[Music] time so he went on to tell me how two male blacks came over to him approached
00:35:10
them pulled out guns and fored them into his car and uh while they were driving him
00:35:17
around they uh brought him to different banks and gave him an ATM card and they made him withdraw money I said you got
00:35:26
to be kidding me I said that's horrible Ren or told him to go back to Brooklyn uh to an apartment they had over in
00:35:36
Brooklyn and he went back to the apartment and he said my sole objective here was to calm Stanley down he said I
00:35:44
could see he looked a little bit nervous he said I really liked Stanley I I thought he was a nice fell and I felt
00:35:53
really bad about him he said that Ren and S would B bad guys and that uh they were more than
00:35:59
willing to kill this guy and he insisted that they had to let him go I thought he
00:36:05
brought tears to my eyes that he was such a concerning human being he was so concerned about
00:36:13
Stanley once I had that I I had really more than I needed leis walked into the precinct and
00:36:26
surrendered said to the S I understand you're looking for me and told him who he was right away Lewis didn't strike me
00:36:33
as being very intelligent and I said to him Lewis I got lucky I got Bren I got sin I got
00:36:46
Mercedes I says and they were all saying you're the ring leader you're the guy that set this up for Stanley I said
00:36:53
don't say a word I said before anything I want to know where you going to be on my team or their team and he looked at
00:37:01
me and said I want to be on your team I said you got [Music] it and he said I didn't do anything he
00:37:12
said it was my apartment he said all I did was sit with Stanley he said I had nothing to do with
00:37:19
the kidnapping right and I really shouldn't even be here and if criminals had brains we'd be out of business
00:37:32
it's 12 or 15 hours later now we've got everybody wrapped up now we have everybody in a big holding
00:37:44
cell I'm on the other side of the squad room and I got my foot up on the desk and I'm smoking a cigarette and I
00:37:52
hear I'm looking around I I look across the room and it's Louis and he's got his face in Between the
00:38:00
Bars so I go walking across the room I said what's the matter says I want to know am I still on your team I said yes
00:38:09
you are and with that I fell right to the floor when they picked him on the street
00:38:20
they had no idea that this mild-mannered man was going to turn out to be an amazing amazing witness he truly had to
00:38:27
have a survival Instinct in order to get through an ordeal like that oh he was great he was the best he was able to
00:38:34
joke with them he was respectful he was polite the things that Stan remembered the evidence that he gave us was
00:38:41
critical in solving this case absolutely [Music] critical they eventually all decided to
00:38:58
plead [Music] guilty the girls got shorter sentences and the men got substantial
00:39:08
[Music] time I personally believe they got what they deserved there was no doubt about
00:39:24
it we have the right to be able to go for point A to point B without being accosted by people with guns and dragged
00:39:33
off and held somewhere against your [Music] will looking back the post kidnapping
00:39:50
part of my life is really better than the pre kidnapping part of my life I think I learned some
00:39:56
important lessons these days I live life more fully a year after it happened I very good got myself
00:40:08
a dog which I'd wanted for a long time it's a little silly but I went out and bought myself a little Cabrio
00:40:18
convertible just recently uh God finally blessed me and had me meet somebody who
00:40:25
I fell in love with and I managed to get married which was you know one of the happiest moments of my
00:40:35
life and so in many ways this kidnapping was a wakeup call to me it made me realize how precious life
00:40:49
is [Music] f [Music] [Music] he [Music]