Page 21 - Michael Bates News Today

Doing time behind the walls of the bergen county jail in hackensack, new jersey, is the last place michael bates wanted to be today. not only did he recently complete a nine-year prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter, hes now awaiting trial on two new counts of aggravated assault. if thats not bad enough, today is his birthday and all he has is a gift from another inmate. >> he told me happy birthday and gave me toilet tissue with my name on it and gave me some of these. >> having served ...

Cell, leave when i want to go. >> mr. cruz likes to think he can dictate where he goes and how he moves in this building, but we move him around a lot so he kind of gets the idea that he can pick and choose where he goes, which is not the case. >> cruz says that he came to the unit on assignment to investigate bates and has no problem saying so right in front of bates. >> one of my pups had a complaint against this gentleman here. yeah. said that he was not living right. so i came here to speak ...

44-year-old, 61", 220-pound cruz. >> as soon as i walked in the cell i turned around and he decided to punch me in the face. cruz has this idea he is still 25 in his head and he can hurt people and stuff, but his punches were bouncing right off my head. >> boom, boom. just one hit. he was all over the place. he couldnt stand up. >> he hit me first, and yes, after three or four times of him punching me in the face, i realized i wasnt able to calm him down. i hit him with an uppercut. saw his dent...

Tonight i will be gone. >> a couple of days later -- >> youre going to s-7. >> better. >> though cruz often boasts that he controls his housing assignments, his transfer is actually prompted by a plea agreement on his drug charge. >> he came back from court. his maximum security status was changed based on his sentence, so he went to medium. he is going to be transferred there tonight. >> thank you. i appreciate that. >> cruzs plea deal will result in a maximum of four years in prison on his cha...

Something wrong. the paperwork is going to come to me. >> hes the minister of new jersey and all this got to come across his desk. what desk? whats got to come across -- who are you? >> damn, i like this cell, this view. this is what i like. >> bates says hes playing it cool until he has accurate information on who cruz really is. >> i think hes retarded, kind of slow. i think something is wrong with him. something is wrong with this guy. >> all day, blood like that, five, all day. recognize rea...

But, see, everything, everybody, im sent to higher ranks. let me tell you, you know who it was who sent me, right? >> yeah, yeah. most definitely. >> now that you know, i spoke to his og. he was in the clear, but everything, see, im a hands-on type of individual. although i can point my finger and have someone murdered, i dont. >> i never heard of him before. never heard of him. now ill make the necessary phone calls and get the necessary contact i got to make and im going to see about this guy....

Camille bundy. >> all right. all right. >> at one point i had a problem with a young girl who was stealing from me and stuff like that. >> now hold on. >> camille is already saying stuff. so i was like i dont want to be bothered. so i moved to another table. >> after much back and forth, officers have concluded that the incident began when jennings started gossiping about another inmates charges. >> this is the deal. youre staying here to stay out of their hair for four hours. youre going back, ...

>> a few of the newer girls keep saying a f of us wrote a statent on another female to get her removed. its false. they questioned us about her. we answered the questions. she was the source of all the problems, so they removed her. chelsea came out of her room from upstairs and started talking so i told her to come down and say it to me. she came to the top of the stairs, so i decided to meet her up there and she just kept getting in my face and she shoved me. >> the whole unit got in everybody...

Even know each other. one blood everyone seems to know is michael bates, who has just met with his attorney and is not pleased with what he has learned. >> i got to go to trial now. >> why? >> theyre throwing double-digit figures at me. i dont want it. im not taking it. if i got to do some time, they got to give it to me. im not pleading guilty to nothing. >> bates has pled not guilty to multiple charges of weapons possession and aggravated assault. he had hoped to reach a plea deal for a senten...

Michael bates is our highest ranking blood member in the jail. >> michael bates definitely is the real deal. he can throw his weight around here. >> i hold a high rank now, which is called og, original gangster. i done fought. i done stabbed people in prison. i done orchestrated riots. i been in every prison in the state of new jersey except the southern state so everybody knows me. my word is gold to them because they seen me action. they dont just hear my audio. they seen my video. they know i...