Termite TV - Life Stories

Hello. It’s me, Mike Diana. I’m sitting here by a beautiful sandbox. The only thing is I’m supposed to stay away from children because I was arrested in Florida for drawing obscene pictures. Printed a nice comic book when I was a teenager. And the police finally busted me. They set up a sting operation at my post office box. And before I knew it I was in prison. It’s very scary being in prison with all the murderers and rapists and stuff. But luckily I survived. It was all very strange when it started. I had to go to court and there was a prosecutor that didn’t like me. And he said I was fueling serial killers in the area. Making them go around murder people and stuff. I thought it was pretty crazy for them to tell me I was doing that. So I finally got a lawyer who took the case to court. I was facing three years in prison. In court there was six jury members who were very angry because they saw my drawings and they didn’t like them. Eventually after a week of trial I was found guilty on three counts of obscenity. It was very scary. They put me in a paddy wagon and handcuffed my hands together and my feet together and, like loaded me in there. All I could do is just lay there and be angry because I knew they had taken away my constitutional rights and everything. But it’s like that in the sunshine state – it's very closed minded and they like to arrest people for some reason. So I was in jail and I saw a few people who I recognized from my dad’s convenience store. They were telling me to hang in there and not to give up, so I figured I’d keep going and not give up and so I did and I finally made it. And then on a Tuesday I had to go in front of the judge for sentencing and they gave me three-years probation and a three thousand dollar fine and three years of community service work. I was ordered not to draw anything that might be considered obscene, and they allowed the police to make surprise searches of my home at any time, without a warrant. So the police busted in and I had to hide all my pencils and drawings and stuff from them. Luckily they never found anything to arrest me again. But it was very very weird. I finally started my community service work, and paying off the fine and everything. I was on probation a long time. I still am on probation. I moved to New York. They gave me permission to come here. Right now we’re on Uncle Richie’s Ranch and I’m enjoying the beautiful breeze and trees and everything. It’s much more relaxing than Florida. In those been to some bad areas, where you have to worry about the police running after you and all that craziness. We even did a termite drawing. Richard hung it up. It’s incredible. I’m sure if it was in Florida they’d say it was obscene. But, anyway, I lost the supreme court battle, so now I’m just doing my community service and stuff. I'll keep going. Keep fighting the system. And you know, talking about it. Trying to inform people about what happened. And maybe in time things will get better. But also they might get worse in Florida. There are a lot of artists out there that haven’t been busted yet. And couldn’t be. Well they could be, but hopefully not.