Episode 11: Meet Charles Turner

This episode is the first in a series of six episodes, each highlighting one of the falsely accused men from the 8th and H Case. Today's episode features Charles Turner.

Despite the challenges they've faced, these men have shown remarkable resilience. They are so much more than the terrible things that happened to them. They're husbands, fathers, friends, supervisors, and mentors, among many other things. This series will allow listeners to see a small glimpse of who these men are as individuals.

Charles Turner spends countless hours volunteering for Free Minds Book Club, where he mentors young people reentering the community from prison. He leads a custodial team at one of the largest libraries in DC. In his spare time, Charles volunteers at homeless shelters.

Transcript

Shannon Lynch Welcome back to The Alley: DC's 8th and H Case. I'm your host, Shannon Lynch. This episode is the first in a series of six episodes, each highlighting one of the falsely accused men from the 8th and H case --Levy Rouse, Charles Turner, Russell Overton, Timothy Catlett, Chris Turner and Cliff Yarbrough. Despite the challenges they've faced, these men have shown remarkable resilience. And they are so much more than the terrible things that happened to them. They're husbands, fathers, friends, supervisors and mentors, among many other things. And just like the rest of us, they have hopes and aspirations. This series will allow listeners to see a small glimpse of who these men are as individuals. Today, I'm happy to be joined by Charles Turner. Charles spends countless hours volunteering for Free Minds Book Club, where he mentors young people reentering the community from prison. He leads a custodial team at one of the largest libraries in D.C.. In his spare time, Charles volunteers at homeless shelters. Mr. Turner, thank you so much for being with me today.

Charles Turner It's a pleasure, Shannon. I was wondering if and when we'd get back together, so I'm glad you did invite me back to your show.

Shannon Lynch So just starting off, when you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grow up?

Charles Turner The one thing I wanted to be was an architect. Second, I wanted to be an oceanographer. I have a love of the ocean and everything in it. I used to watch Jacques Cousteau every Sunday. The wonderful world of Jacques Cousteau every Sunday. And I fell in love with the sea and everything about it. Everything that goes in the sea.

Shannon Lynch That's a cool dream. Coming more to the present. What hobbies do you have now? Like, what types of things do you do for fun?

Charles Turner I don't really do anything that most people would call fun. Like, personally, I like a lot of quiet time. I like a lot of me time. I like a lot of reflection and I'm happy being alone with a book. I like to watch cartoons. I got the Disney Plus and I watch all Disney movies. I watch Star Wars. Oh I can watch it all day. I could give a symposium on Star Wars, Marvel, all that kind of stuff. And I love these things. And mostly that's what I would call fun. Picking up a kettlebell or reading a comic book. I have tons of comic books that I'm trying to find somebody to trade with or to sell them off because I don't want to throw them away. And those are the things that I've always found to be fun.

Shannon Lynch Yeah.

Charles Turner At least at this age, as I've grown older. You know, when I was younger, I played a lot of basketball, played handball a lot. But as I got older and I realized I couldn't do those things anymore, you know, I always was a reader, always was a reader. When I played handball or basketball, I had a book in my hand when I went to the court.

Shannon Lynch What are some of your simple pleasures? Like, what are some small things that make you happy?

Charles Turner You know, just the alone time makes me happy because I really get tired of people.

Shannon Lynch Me too.

Charles Turner I really, I'm telling you, I get tired of people, you know, And being on a job where I am going to have to deal with so many different people. Being able to just wind down and chill by myself at times. Is really enjoyable to me because I really do get tired of people.

Shannon Lynch Yeah. That is so real. Tell me something -- it can be something big, it could be something small -- that you're looking forward to right now.

Charles Turner Getting my own home. I think I've mentioned this to you before, and not just having a home, but decorating, the home making and fashioning that home into my space, you know, putting my own touches on it. And, you know, I have a few friends that know things about decorating. So that's one pleasure that I look forward to having. Because when I look when I think about a home, I think about a garage. Think about a driveway. I can pull my car up in and I can wash my car in the summer. And having a dog, you know, I always had a pet.Before I got locked up, always had a pet. So I look forward to having a pet, that pet growing old with me and all everything that goes with it, you know, And then being able to have, we used to have traditions in our house. I would like to do some of those things, get my brothers and my sister together and our little nieces and nephews and continuing some of those families traditions we used to have. I used to love and look forward to every year certain things at Halloween. We used to have everybody's birthday, my father and my grandma, they used to let us do certain things like have a party, right? Whatever friends we wanted over, you know, that type of thing. We used to drink a glass of champagne. We all had our own champagne flutes and a bureau that we all pulled out during a holiday, Thanksgiving, Christmas. And we had decanters with wine and those traditions. I'd like to continue that at some point, but you know, from my own perspective, right in my own home.

Shannon Lynch If and when you do get a pet, what type of pet do you think you would get? A cat dog, a specific type of dog?

Charles Turner Right now, I'm leaning toward a dog, a Belgian Malinois. So a Malinois is the dog that I look forward to, but that's my first choice. The second choice would be a German shepherd because we had a German Shepherd when I got locked up. We had two, as a matter of fact, Dynamite and Princess, I got a tattoo of one of them on my arm, Dynamite. The only reason I say I have the two picks is because the Malinois is very energetic. You have to have a lot of energy to have that dog. Because the dog can't just be in the house. I'm getting older, so I'm less active than I would have been, say, in my 40s. So I would have been able to give that dog all the energy it needs. A Malinois needs a lot of energy. You have to get it out. It has to run and it can't just be in a house. So that's why I had to second choice. The German Shepherd is more of a chill and laid back dog that'll sit in a house with you as you're an old man. You can have the dog and it'll be all right. You don't have to take it out as much. It doesn't require as much attention as a Malinois. Those are the two dogs if I got a big dog. If I got a little one, it would be one of those. What is that? The little dog always with big attitudes, too. I think that's a Pekinese. I think that's really is. I really like those too. I like those little dogs, too.

Shannon Lynch I don't know if you know this, but I have a little dog and she's definitely a guard dog.

Charles Turner Yeah, I'm telling you.

Shannon Lynch So it's totally, it's totally possible. Yeah. To have one of those little guard dogs. So what are some changes that you would like to see in the future? In our city, in DC and in the country overall.

Charles Turner I would like to see. A lot more tolerance for people. Lot more tolerance of others. Like even though the United States is a melting pot, I would like to see more intermingling of different groups of people. And you see it more in D.C., D.C., is a place where you see it a lot. You see a lot of mixed couples and stuff like that. I always love to see that thing, that sort of thing. I think that's a beautiful thing because I don't believe that we was all put here to be, you know, just black people being together or African people, white people being together. I believe we're here to mix with each other. We all the same. I believe it's how we're taught and how we're raised, which causes division between us. We all have a common ground that we can come to and we can all cohabitate and live peacefully.

Shannon Lynch Yeah.

Charles Turner And I would love to see that in my lifetime. I would love to see it.

Shannon Lynch That's really beautiful. Yeah, I do love the diversity of D.C.. It's great to see. So now, at your age, if you could give your younger self advice, what advice would you give?

Charles Turner My younger self? Be more patient. Pay attention more to what's going on around you. Think a lot more before you act. Before you go into any endeavor, whatever it is you're going to do, wherever you try to go. Give it a lot of thought. First, think about, you know, where you want to be in life. Like I knew because I wanted to be an oceanographer. I knew I was going to go, I wanted to go in the Navy because it put me closer to the ocean. And it would be a stepping stone to that, you know. But I didn't act on it. I never and I could have I could have acted on it. I didn't. So I would tell my younger self, that was my dream. Work on that. Do that. Pursue that. Because I believe people are more happier doing the things like you ask me the things that make me happy when you do the things that you like doing. If you do it, if you will take a job, take a job that you like, you know, if you like really comic books, learn how to make a comic book or, you know, this would ultimately make you happier as a person as you grow into life. You know, you're doing the things that you find out what you love doing and pursue that. I would have told my younger self and I didn't do it.

Shannon Lynch Yeah. I didn't know that. I hadn't heard that before about you. That you were thinking about going into the Navy. That's really cool. So my last question I have for you. What do you want to be remembered for?

Charles Turner I want to be remembered for being a solid individual. Being honest. Be somebody who always kept his word. If he's saying he's going to do something, he did it. If he couldn't do it, that very important to me that I'm remembered as an honest stand up guy. You know, they're still in on his principles as a man because, you know, one day a kid at work, he wasn't acting right. So I had him into my office and I was talking to him and he was getting really stupid. He was talking really crazy. This kid has been going through some stuff. And I talk to him and I try to, you know, kind of mentor him, if you will. And I try to be on his side to show him that, you know, I understand certain stuff. Right. He's going through stuff with his kids. And I was there to talk to him. He could talk to me to let him know that he could share that with me. And I would never you know, I'm one of those people Shannon who can keep a secret. You know, we talk, me and you have a conversation, nobody would ever know what you and I talked about. That's just the dude I am I don't believe in taking with me what you and I say and go talk to anybody about, you know, whatever we say, it always stay close to me. So that's one of the things that's important to me that I be somebody that you can talk to and not have to say, "that's between me and you." If you are somebody close to me would know that I would never, I bet you can ask Chrissy, never would say that I took anything we ever talked about and talk to anybody about it because there's this and that's one of the things I would like to be remembered for. You know, being somebody you can confide in and you can talk to, and he gon stand on his word. And anything we talk about, I'm going to take to my great.

Shannon Lynch Yeah, that would be a wonderful thing to be remembered for. Well, Mr. Turner, thank you for taking the time to talk to me today. I truly appreciate it.

Charles Turner Yes, no problem. No problems and no problem. Again, the pleasure's all mine. Is always take great pleasure and share a little bit of myself.

Shannon Lynch Thank you for listening to the Alley: DC's 8th and H Case. Stay tuned for the remaining five episodes of this series, which will highlight Levi Strauss, Russell Overton, Timothy Catlett, Kris Turner and Cliff Yarbrough. This has been a new America Studios production. My name is Shannon Lynch and I'm your host and executive producer. Our co-producers are David Lanham, Joe Wilkes and Carly Anderson. Social Media by Maika Moulite. Media Outreach by Heidi Lewis. Visuals by Alex Briñas. Yes, please Rate Review and subscribe to this podcast wherever you like to listen.