19 OctOber 26–NOvember 1, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Begging For Your Pardon Richard Haskins is on a mission to get pardoned by the state. BY DANNY GALLAGHER D enton punk rocker Richard Haskins has given up all the vices that seem to plague so many of his musical kind. He’s given up smoking. He’s stopped drinking. He’s even got a better handle on his diet. His new lifestyle and improved health also inspired him to erase one more dark spot from his past: his criminal re- cord. Haskins says he’s seeking a pardon for his felony re- cord through the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and eventually from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. “From there, it just snowballed into, ‘I wanna clean up my record,’” Haskins says of his new clean lifestyle. “I wanna clean up a bunch of things in my life.” Police arrested The Wee-Beasties frontman in 2012 for an attempted robbery of a Wells Fargo bank when he slipped a note to a teller at the drive-thru and fled the scene in panic. He didn’t use a gun or get any money, but the Denton police took his actions seriously. He originally got 10 years for probation, but he violated the terms of his probation in 2016, landing him a two-year prison sentence. Haskins got out on parole in a little under a year. “Even just being locked up for that long, I had some real difficulties adjusting,” Haskins says. “[President Donald] Trump got elected while I was in. It was like coming out to the fucking Twilight Zone.” One of the biggest challenges of prison life was just trying to stay tough and not show that his situation was getting to him while he served his time. “I can’t cry or show any sort of weaknesses, you know,” Haskins says. “I just buried all of those things.” Haskins’ struggles didn’t stop when he became a semi- free man again. He says he still had a problem with alcohol that he had to face head-on if he wanted to make the most of the second chance he’d been given. “When I first go out, I was in my outside life dealing with alcoholism and stuff,” Haskins says. “The first year I was out, it was kind of a tough adjustment. I’m getting out and now I’m a felon. I can’t be on a lease most places. I can’t work most places. It’s like are you trying to get me into a life of crime?” Haskins wanted to get back to work for himself and his kids, but having a felony on his record made it difficult to find work. So Haskins says he worked two jobs “under the table for years” while getting back with his band touring and performing. “I just got caught up with taxes and stuff,” Haskins says. “I’ll basically live off of show money and gig money with the kindness of friends and God’s good grace just getting by.” Then another setback popped up two months later when his doctor told him he has type-2 diabetes. But rather than let it get in his way, he says it inspired him to sober up and start taking care of himself. “It’s like a game changer for me because I just changed a lot of things really quickly,” Haskins says. “I don’t drink or do any shit like that anymore. I don’t even smoke pot be- cause if I smoke pot, I get hungry and I’m on a really strict diet. I quit smoking, too.” His newfound zest for healthy living may be more inspir- ing, but it’s still a struggle for Haskins. Even though he’s working two jobs, he says the medical costs for treating his diabetes can easily add up to harrowing amounts. “Diabetes is fucking expensive to have,” Haskins says. “I’m having to work my ass off just to take care of it.” However, Haskins seems happy and content with where he is and where he’s trying to take his life now that he’s free, clean and sober. “It’s fun to get up early and not have a hangover, to con- stantly be productive and work for something,” Haskins says. “My focus with our band has gotten so much better too. I’m a better frontman. I’m losing weight and I can breathe better because I quit smoking. I’m just better at doing the things I love doing.” Now that he’s got a clean head and is working on cleaning up the rest, Haskins says he wants to clean up his criminal record. He’s not able to get his record expunged and can’t af- ford the kind of legal representation that would have a chance of making that happen, so he’s writing letters and fil- ing for applications with the Texas Board of Pardons and Pa- roles, or as he says, “I’m going for a fucking state pardon.” Even if he doesn’t have a lawyer, Hawkins isn’t alone. Guitar player Stephenie Blaise passed the bar and has been guiding him through the legal minefield that is the Texas pe- nal code for paroling and pardoning. “I’ve been able to kind of pick her brain about stuff,” Haskins says. “I try to not abuse it because she’s a fucking lawyer and I don’t want to use somebody’s services without paying for it but she’s been so cool about helping me grasp this process.” He’s also writing almost daily to the parole board with letters of recommendation and character witness state- ments from “so many really upstanding awesome citizens and a former city councilman. Even therapists are like, ‘Man, I’ll write you a letter.’” “One of the reasons I’m doing this is not just for the par- don and stuff,” Haskins says. “I’m just making a change in my life. I want to inspire the other people around me partic- ularly my children. You can fucking turn it around, man. You can change. You can change yourself.” Haskins says even if it takes decades of letter writing just to get noticed, he’s willing to do the work. “If it takes me 20 fucking years writing [Gov. Abbott] ev- ery month, I’m gonna do it,” Haskins says. “This is not some- thing I take lightly. It’s something I’m taking on. Something like that is worth chasing down with everything you’ve got.” Ed Steele The Wee-Beasties’ frontman Richard Haskins says now that he’s gotten his life and health back to relatively normal, he’s working to get pardoned. | B-SIDES | t Music ENTER TO WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS SCAN HERE
