{"id":33874,"date":"2012-08-26T10:45:55","date_gmt":"2012-08-26T08:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/?p=33874"},"modified":"2023-10-06T10:54:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T08:54:00","slug":"3w3rrs-10-years-jail-pedition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/ham-radio-news\/3w3rrs-10-years-jail-pedition\/","title":{"rendered":"3W3RR’s 10 years Jail-Pedition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As of today, Roman (3W3RR) is held in the western building of the
\ndetention center MDC Brooklyn in Brooklyn, New York. Prior to 2007, he
\nwas in a number of prisons from Cyprus to California and Oklahoma. U.S.
\nauthorities have been keeping him without sentencing for 10 (ten) years
\nfrom the date of the arrest in Cyprus (in February 2003), periodically
\nassigning new accusations that are regularly supplied by Secret Service
\nand the Justice Department in Washington.
\nSince last year, Roma dismissed all his lawyers and now is defending
\nhimself, as obviously none of them – neither paid by the government nor
\nprivate – could help. In the meantime, he is getting as much pleasure as
\npossible from this rather prolonged DX-jail adventure.<\/p>\n

Letters, photographs, and QSL can be sent to the address of the prison:<\/p>\n

Roman Vega
\n#59198-004
\nMDC Brooklyn
\nP.O.Box 329002
\nBrooklyn NY 11232
\nU.S.A.<\/p>\n

— — —<\/p>\n

From NT2X<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Hello everyone,<\/p>\n

I’ve gotten a letter from Roman (“Romeo”) Stepanenko, aka\u00a0Roman Vega,\u00a0the one we know as 3W3RR (ex AH0M). He is an unwilling guest of the\u00a0the US Government, currently at MDC (Metropolitan Detention Center),\u00a0in Brooklyn, NY.<\/p>\n

It has been 7 (seven) years that he has been in this country, since\u00a0he was extradited from Cyprus, accused of credit card fraud by our\u00a0Dept of Justice. Somewhere on the internet there is a cheerful press\u00a0release about that event, going back to 2003.<\/p>\n

Well, it is seven years later – and there has been no trial. Detention\u00a0– yes, continued investigation – certainly, but NO TRIAL. Call me\u00a0naive, but I would have difficulty believing this is possible in this\u00a0country. Well, it is possible. Seven years is a long time to\u00a0investigate a case against someone held in jail. IMHO, something is
\nwrong with this picture. Or maybe the case isn’t that solid? Draw\u00a0your\u00a0own conclusions, fellas.<\/p>\n

He is residing only few miles away, yet we had no contact over this\u00a0time. This is the first letter I received. I dare to guess that\u00a0something is changing in his circumstances and he decided to write<\/p>\n

He doesn’t speak about his case much. It is an intensely private\u00a0matter. Apparently he doesn’t want to share it with the worlds at\u00a0this time.\u00a0The reasons are obvious<\/p>\n

Do you want to know if he is alive and well? He is, full of the usual\u00a0“piss and vinegar”. He is doing as well as he can within\u00a0the jail\u00a0confines. Romeo shares his cell with other inmates, all 120 of them.\u00a0Call it a room with a view – allowing for a peek at distant Manhattan\u00a0and Gowanus Expressway 40 ft away.<\/p>\n

His English has improved to the point of becoming his ‘official’\u00a0second language. He has spent last 3 years studying Japanese and other\u00a0languages. Romeo is busy – his own library of about 150 books and a\u00a0stack of books and periodicals waiting to be read (he is subscribed to\u00a0about 20), extensive letter writing to all sorts of people, excelling\u00a0at yoga. His mood is upbeat and he keeps a very positive outlook on\u00a0life and his own fate. This is the same unbending Romeo I knew back\u00a0when he was in zenith of his worldwide fame, except showing more\u00a0wisdom and reserve.<\/p>\n

Do I think he is an angel with a snow-white consciousness? No, not\u00a0really. Does he deserve our sympathy? That depends on which side of\u00a0the fence you are on. I think that Amateur Radio world may have lost\u00a0track of Romeo for awhile, but he is not forgotten. So, boys and\u00a0girls, fan (and hate) mail may be sent to him directly: Roman Vega, #\u00a059198-004, MDC, PO Box 329002, Brooklyn, NY 11232, USA. Letters,\u00a0photos and QSLs are welcome – but currency, checks or IRCs of any kind\u00a0are strictly forbidden by jail regulations – DO NOT SEND them. (Romeo,\u00a0ain’t this ironic?)<\/p>\n

He promises a special jailhouse QSL when he gets out (another ‘new\u00a0one’ from this DXpeditioner). Just don’t expect one too soon ))<\/p>\n

To those inquiring minds who want to know: Is Romeo Stepanenko using\u00a0me to get his name back in the limelight again? The answer is no. OK,\u00a0maybe just a little bit. But I don’t mind. He hasn’t asked for
\nanything. I’m posting this letter to the Amateur community totally\u00a0on\u00a0my own. Opinions expressed are my own and not Romeo’s.<\/p>\n

Reprint and duplication of this information in any form are freely\u00a0permitted<\/p>\n

73, Ed Kritsky\/NT2X<\/strong><\/p>\n

— — —<\/p>\n

3W3RR’s Pics & QSL’s collection<\/a> | 3W3RR’s WEB Page<\/a> (In Russian language<\/em>) | 3W3RR’s Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As of today, Roman (3W3RR) is held in the western building of the detention center MDC Brooklyn in Brooklyn, New York. Prior to 2007, he was in a number of prisons from Cyprus to California and Oklahoma. U.S. authorities have been keeping him without sentencing for 10 (ten) years from the date of the arrest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[190,194,203,234],"class_list":["post-33874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ham-radio-news","tag-ham","tag-ham_radio","tag-hamradio","tag-info","category-5","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}