#255 Jason Flom with Dieter Tejada

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2022

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On March 8th, 2008, the leader of a bat wielding group of high schoolers from a wealthy Connecticut town instigated a fight with Dieter Tejada. After Dieter wrestled the bat away, defended himself with it, and fled, the aggressor continued to instigate violence with some of Dieter’s friends. The following day, allegations of serious injuries led to assault charges. Despite acting in self defense, Dieter and the others avoided lengthy sentences by pleading guilty. In the United States, 95% of felony charges are resolved by plea bargain. This is one of those stories. To learn more and get involved, visit: https://gofund.me/d306d52e https://justiceimpactnetwork.org/ https://justiceimpactalliance.org/ https://guiltypleaproblem.org/ https://lavaforgood.com/with-jason-flom/ Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In early 2008, Dieter Tejado was a high school senior dating a girl named Avery Assevedo
0:07.4	until a heated argument led to their breakup.
0:10.3	At a party on March 8, 2008, Dieter received a call from Avery's number but a guy named
0:15.6	Nick Schwartz was on the other end, slurring and making threats in a fake New York accent.
0:21.6	Dismissing the tough guy persona and the threats Dieter put him on speaker to share what
0:25.5	he believed to be trivial and amusing with the other partygoers, Dieter soon realized
0:30.2	his mistake when he arrived at Avery's house and was met by Nick and three friends, all
0:35.9	with baseball bats.
0:37.8	Instead of having a few laughs at Nick in front of the partygoers who'd come along, Dieter
0:42.9	was in very real danger.
0:45.2	Unbeknownst to Dieter, Nick was on designer drugs at night and had a history of violence
0:50.4	along with a troubling psychiatric diagnosis.
0:54.0	Nick hit Dieter in the chest and eventually Dieter was able to wrestle away the bat
0:58.8	and hit Nick as well before calling the fight over.
1:03.0	At that point, Nick got into the crowd that had slowly amassed into further violence
1:07.3	while Dieter left the scene.
1:09.1	According to the law, Nick was the instigator.
1:11.9	Dieter had the right to match force with him and a bat is arguably a deadly weapon.
1:17.1	However, Dieter did not get even close to the force that he was legally allowed to use.
1:22.8	Yet, Nick's family's access to power appears to have mattered much more than the law with
1:28.0	a corrupt prosecutor calling the shots.
1:31.1	This is wrongful conviction.
	...

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