107. The Technology (Real Water)
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This episode of Swindled may contain graphic descriptions or audio recordings of disturbing events which may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. How may I help you? Yeah, hi, I need a welfare check. On who are we doing a welfare check? For my son. He's been missing for two days. His work's called, his family's called, I've called, his ex-wife's called.

And there's nobody answering the phone and nobody...

There's nothing. Nobody can get a hold of him, and then his work calls, and they can't get a hold of him. It's really, really, he just doesn't act like this. Okay. Does he live alone? He lives with his 16-year-old daughter who is not answering the phone or replying to a text. And the weird part is, I'll just tell you this, there's been ATM withdrawals at three different ATM places.

Christine Houseff had not heard from her son Daniel for several days. This was out of character for the 45-year-old single father, so she contacted the police and Daniel's landlord to ask them to conduct a welfare check at his Las Vegas home. On April 9, 2021, Peggy Newman, the owner of the house, entered the residence with a friend by her side for support. Immediately, they smelled lighter fluid and found a large burned area in the living room.

Power tools were strewn about the house. There was a chainsaw on the ground and a handsaw in the kitchen with, quote, In the garage, Peggy and her friend discovered Daniel House's body. It had been stabbed 70 times and partially dismembered before being set on fire, end quote.

burned from head to toe. While first responders secured the scene, they were approached by a couple. The Guerreros were looking for their son, Aaron, who had run away from home the night before.

18-year-old Aaron Guerrero had dated the victim, Daniel Houseth's 16-year-old daughter, Ciara. They were together from June 2020 until December 2020, when Daniel discovered that Aaron and Ciara were plotting to rob him and Aaron's parents before running away to Los Angeles. Daniel Houseth alerted the Guerreros they agreed to forbid their children from seeing each other again, orders for which their children apparently chose to ignore.

Surveillance video obtained from Home Depot showed Aaron Guerrero purchasing power tools, disposable gloves, and a drop cloth a few days before Daniel's mutilated corpse was found. Footage from a supermarket showed Sierra Houseth buying two gallons of bleach and a gallon of orange juice. ATM cameras also captured Sierra withdrawing cash using her father's debit cards, over $1,300 in one day, until the bank flagged the accounts for fraud and froze them.

A neighbor's security camera watched as Erin and Sierra left the scene in her father's blue Nissan Altima four days after Daniel's body was found. On Tuesday, April 13, 2021, the young couple was spotted by cameras boarding a train around 7 a.m. in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sierra and Erin snuggled, laughed, and slept for over an hour. Around 8.30 a.m., the transit police approached the couple to ask for proof of fare.

Whoops, they had forgotten to pay. The transit officer scanned Aaron Guerrero's ID and soon discovered that the 18-year-old was wanted for murder in Las Vegas. Both Aaron and Sierra were taken into custody. And two teenagers in custody after police say they were on the run after killing a man on Friday, and one of them is the victim's daughter.

On Sierra House's confiscated phone, authorities found what was seemingly a confession. It was a video of Sierra and Aaron Guerrero lying on the ground somewhere. "Welcome back to our YouTube channel," Aaron says. "Three days after murdering somebody." I don't know what to say. Welcome back to our YouTube channel. Day three. Day three after murdering somebody. Whoa! Don't put that on the camera!

It was worth it. And we had sex a lot today. It was worth it. I got plenty of sex. I was paying them for doing it. And no bleeding this time. On May 25, 2022, both Aaron Guerrero and Sierra Howseff pleaded guilty to murder with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit murder, arson, robbery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery, and four counts of fraudulent use of a credit or debit card.

They were sentenced on October 20th, 2022 to 22 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole. At the hearing, Aaron Guerrero apologized. Later, he claimed he was out of control high on LSD at the time. Sierra Houseth, on the other hand, justified their actions. She claimed her father, Daniel, had sexually and physically abused her. "My biological father has traumatized me. Trauma I still have to work through every day," Sierra told the judge.

Daniel House's family denies the abuse allegations. However, Sierra's mother and Daniel's estranged wife, Elizabeth Helgelin, believes her daughter, telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal, quote,

That doesn't excuse all of her actions. At the time she was a minor and has taken responsibility like an adult. She is now facing the consequences like an adult. This is the only time I will address this during the campaign. That's right, the campaign. Elizabeth Helgelin is running to represent Nevada's 3rd district in Congress in 2024. Let's hear her out, shall we? "DC is full of talkers. They promise us a better economy.

They promise to keep us safe. They promise to fight radical liberalism. I'm Elizabeth Helgelin, and I'm done with empty promises. It's time to walk the walk. Elizabeth Helgelin, a real conservative for Congress.

Elizabeth Helgeland's 2024 campaign has been endorsed by the likes of Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and Matt Gaetz. The self-proclaimed Christian conservative candidate promises to bring common sense to government, something she claims she has already proven capable of doing.

Back in 2010, Elizabeth Helgelin, then Elizabeth Halseth, became the youngest female to be elected as state senator in Nevada history. She was 27 years old at the time, a fairly recent transplant from Oregon. Elizabeth and her husband Daniel moved to the Silver State after he had lost his job.

Six years later, she was challenging the incumbent to represent District 9, which Republican Dennis Nolan had represented for 16 years as both an assemblyman and a senator. He had voted yes for tax increases and domestic partnership, which was much too moderate for today's standards of conservatism. Elizabeth Halstead promised to move further to the right if the people would help her unseat Nolan.

Dennis Nolan's recent actions made it rather easy. You see, Nolan had recently testified as a character witness for a former campaign volunteer in a rape case. That volunteer, 21-year-old Gordon Laws, was ultimately convicted of walking naked down the stairs of his home one night in 2004 and having sex with his wife's unconsciously intoxicated 16-year-old sister.

Gordon was sentenced to life in prison with parole possible after 10 years, a ruling that was eventually reversed by the Nevada Supreme Court in 2011. But before that, in May 2010, while campaigning against Elizabeth Houseth in the primary for the state senator seat, the incumbent, Dennis Nolan, made a phone call.

He called Gordon Laws' ex-wife the sister of the rape victim and left a voicemail letting her know that it would be quote "financially beneficial for her to consider telling the truth."

The victim's family provided that recording to Elizabeth Howseff, who posted it on her website for all of District 9 to hear.

The rape victim's father also recorded radio ads for her campaign. Needless to say, Elizabeth Halsef won the primary.

Then, unexpectedly, she defeated her Democrat opponent. Her campaign had sent out a mailer with a photo of her opponent and his wife, who was wearing a quote "revealing evening dress" with the caption "not our values." Elizabeth Houseff instilled her conservative family values into the Nevada State Senate for about two years. Then she had an affair, stopped attending meetings, and got a divorce.

At the time, Daniel Houseth was a stay-at-home dad. The couple had been married for 11 years. They had three kids. Daniel had also recently been arrested. He had been charged with two felony counts of coercion and battery when Elizabeth accused her husband of threatening her and trying to force himself on her for sex. Daniel Houseth pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts and was sentenced to six months probation and anger management classes.

But the marriage was over, and so was Elizabeth House's tenure as state senator. She resigned from her post the same year she was named conservative of the year by Citizens Outreach. The same year a Las Vegas Review-Journal poll voted her the worst senator in the state. Truly a country divided. While the Democrats focused on more government intrusion in our lives and less personal responsibility,

They wanted to focus on things like passing a cell phone bill. Because while it is important to know that it is dangerous to text and drive, it's also an intrusion on our liberty as adults to make those decisions. In her resignation letter to Nevada's governor, Elizabeth Houseth said she couldn't balance the job's demands with being a recently single mother. She also said she'd planned to leave the state because she couldn't find a job because of how she's been portrayed in the media.

Three months later, Elizabeth Howseth was spreading her Christian family values on the pages of Maxim Magazine. She was a write-in candidate for the magazine's Hot 100 photo contest. In her entry, she wore a black bikini, pretty impressive for a mother of three, but the only thing Elizabeth won was a few minutes of adoration from the country's most prolific cologne sample-wearing teenage boys.

Speaking of which, in the years that followed, Elizabeth Halstead married a man named Tiger. She adopted his surname Helgelin, and the family, including Elizabeth's three children, whom she had been granted primary custody, moved to Alaska. There, the former state senator became a real estate agent.

The father of Elizabeth's children, Daniel Halsef, also remarried but then divorced again. He'd spent some time in Texas for work but ultimately Daniel and his ex-wife and kids would reunite in Las Vegas. An ugly custody battle ensued. Sierra Halsef, the young, future murderer, was caught in the middle.

It feels like reality TV every time I hear Elizabeth speak, the defendant. I have no idea why she's saying the thing that she's saying. She is doing better, Your Honor. We do go shopping. We do have activities together.

She does talk to her friends. I am monitoring her social media. I can see the electronics. I don't snoop through her phone and stuff like that in conversations she's having with her mother.

Judge Charles J. Hoskin was concerned about Sierra's recent behavior and relationship with her parents. But I saw a lot of things with regard to Sierra that causes me some concerns. Her inconsistency in the stories, depending on who she's talking to and when, comparing her interview with the Family Mediation Center, with her interview with Child Protective Services, it indicates to me that something else is going on with Sierra. I don't know yet what that is.

whether that's parental alienation, whether that's human trafficking, whether that's manipulation. And I don't know who at this point is to blame for that, but I'm less concerned about placing blame than I am with regard to this child and a child's relationship with a parent.

Prescient words from the judge.

Unfortunately, we know how Sierra House's relationship with her parents unfolded, a tragedy for everyone involved, but I'm leading with this story because of its coincidental overlap with another story that unfolded simultaneously.

When Elizabeth Houseth resigned from her seat as Senator of Nevada's 9th District in 2010, a special election followed, and one of the candidates vying for that position was a man named Brent Allen Jones, a businessman who would soon be at the center of a tragedy to call his own. A Nevada-based bottled water company poisons its customers on this episode of Swindled.

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Early in my life, I did all the things that society said you should do. I got A's in school, went to college, got a bachelor's degree, then went to law school and graduated from Pepperdine School of Law, a well-respected university. I married a pretty woman, started a family, and practiced law. In fact, in 1995, I was voted Best Lawyer in Ventura County, California by the Business Digest magazine. Looking at my life from an outside perspective, it appeared almost perfect.

Brent Allen Jones was sitting in his car in the parking lot outside Carl's Jr. eating his lunch one day in 1993 when a random woman walked up and knocked on his window.

Brent told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he rolled down his window and greeted the woman. "She was a Scientologist, and she sold me a book," Jones told the newspaper. Dianetics. The woman's timing honestly could not have been better. Brent Jones was 30 years old, working as a lawyer in Ventura County, California, and completely unfulfilled. Brent claims his original dream was to join the Air Force. He had even attended pilot school, but says a rare disease that surfaced in high school ruined his plans.

Instead, Brent went to law school. Ever since, he had felt pretty empty, like he wasn't contributing much to society. He had searched for answers in the books of Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Pentecostalism, even a bit of New Age and Eastern philosophy. Nothing resonated, until, that is, he read Dianetics, written by some guy named Ron.

It just made such sense to me, Brent Jones told the Review Journal. When I started to apply these guidelines, these rules, we call it the technology. When you apply it to your life, things just start working better for you. Things started working better for Brent Jones almost immediately. The church introduced the young lawyer to another relatively recent convert, Raul Lopez.

Raul had suffered a traumatic brain injury eight years earlier after a head-on collision with a big rig. It took him several months to learn how to walk again, and at only 19 years old he was unlikely ever to be able to work. Fortunately, Raul Lopez was awarded a $1.7 million settlement from the accident. Within months, he was approached by the local Scientologist.

They told me they had what I needed. Raul recalled to the New Times LA that if I followed the program, I could be cured of the tremor and I could be my old self again, which is all I ever wanted. The church sold Raul Lopez some expensive courses and auditing classes, but his mother caught on quickly. She marched down to the Scientology Center and demanded a refund. They were happy to oblige.

But the pursuit never ended. Eventually the church convinced Raul Lopez to rejoin its ranks, but only if he kept it a secret from his family this time. They completely isolated Raul and systematically looted him over the next several years for almost every single penny he was worth.

Church members would drive Raoul to the bank where he would withdraw $10,000 to $50,000 at a time. At one point Raoul's auditor was even living with him in the paid off home that the church would eventually encourage Raoul to refinance, the equity of which was used for other Scientology related purposes like loaning money to a fellow member in need.

For instance, Raul Lopez loaned $300,000 to a Scientology-owned company called RC&A, which purportedly installed payphones in prison. Raul Lopez never received a return on that investment.

Finally, he had had enough. Raul threatened legal action, but church officials politely reminded him that it would be improper to sue other church members. Instead, they recommended arbitration and set Raul up with his own lawyer. It was the new guy, Brent Allen Jones, at your service.

The church eventually refunded Raul Lopez the $300,000 in principle but clawed it back from him in different ways over time. One of which Raul's Scientology assigned lawyer, Brent A. Jones, approached his client with a business opportunity.

Jones explained to Raul that he owned a farm in Southern California where he was breeding and selling ostriches. It was big business, according to Brent Jones. A trio of birds could cost between $20,000 and $30,000, and each ostrich egg sold for about $1,000. Act quick. You don't want to miss out. Raul Lopez invested about $30,000.

After paying monthly room and board for his ostriches and providing the funding to build an enclosure for them on Jones' property, Raul Lopez said he finally made it out to the farm in late 1994 to see the ostriches for himself. There was nothing there. "Jones tells me, 'Your ostriches died.' That was it. I never even got to know which ones were mine.

Brent Jones' ostrich business ultimately failed, just like all of Raoul's other Scientology-recommended investments. By 1997, his finances were completely depleted. "Mom, there's no more money in the bank," Raoul remembers admitting.

The family sued the Church of Scientology and Brent Jones. The case was settled out of court and remained sealed. But Brent Jones claims he was unaffected, telling the Las Vegas Sun, "There was no foundation for allegations against me, and I paid nothing." By the time the Lopez case was settled, Brent Jones had relocated his family and his new business venture to Las Vegas. The new company was called Affinity Lifestyles. No ostriches involved.

This time, Brent was selling water. Are you feeling sluggish, old, and tired? It could be because your body is dehydrated on a cellular level. Most purified waters are acidic and as a result may be rejected by your body. But it doesn't have to be that way. Real water is different. It is beyond alkalinity. Not just any water. This was real water. Alkaline water with a pH greater than 8.

Wow.

holy water must have already been trademarked. My wife has an arthritic thumb. We had tried everything we could. After just a month of drinking the alkaline ionized water, we found that she fully regained range of motion. Absolutely all the pain is gone. Terrific stuff. I have increased energy. My digestion has improved. My

skin is clear i had a very bad knee my left knee was afflicted with arthritis and i had that for about a year and a half and after drinking the ionized water the pain completely went away could this be true is alkaline water the answer to whatever ails you let me ask you this is water wet yes but also it could be wetter

That's right. Real Water also advertised itself as making water "weather" by breaking down clusters of water molecules into smaller ones through ionization. The reason for doing this, the company claimed, is because the smaller clusters of water molecules, full of powerful antioxidants, could more easily pass through cell membranes to enable the body to heal itself. Come on, people. This is like Science 101.

What we're talking about here is we're talking about a water that will donate these electrons, making the water a negabionic charge, which in essence is a free radical scavenger, which we would call an antioxidant.

So we need antioxidants because we live in an acidic environment. We live with free radicals. We've all heard about free radicals. And free radicals not only contribute to known diseases, but it's a major contributor to premature aging. So when someone says, you know, I'm looking older than I used to, we're talking about free radical damage, and it's really technically called oxidative decomposition.

Could it be a bunch of marketing mumbo jumbo? Again, is water wet?

The Guardian debunked most of Real Water's marketing claims in a 2011 article, which The Daily Beast summarized in 2016, which I will now shorten even further and regurgitate to you. Gotta love modern media. Real Water claims that normal drinking water is dangerously acidic. Untrue. Normal drinking water contains dangerous free radicals. Also untrue. And Real Water adds hundreds of millions of free electrons to its beverages. Impossible.

But what about all of those healing properties Brent Jones espoused in the past? Our government goes after natural products companies ruthlessly. If they make any claims about their products, they will show up with guns drawn, throw people in jail, seize bank accounts. So it is very important that we state emphatically that our products specifically cannot and does not treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Looks like someone is singing a different tune.

In the early 2000s, Brent Jones' Affinity Lifestyles Company launched a new product line without health claims attached. Real water remained the flagship product bottled for human consumption, but now there was also real plant water and real pet water. The company also sold shower heads that I guess would ionize your bath water, as well as $4,000 water ionizing machines that allowed for one to make their own ionized water at home. Every avenue for profit was explored.

There's a new product on the market that could help you get your life back. It's called Real Electron Energize Prostate Aid.

Not to mention, in those early years, Affinity Lifestyles operated as a network marketing company, also known as a multi-level marketing company or direct marketing, a pyramid scheme. As if that wasn't obvious as soon as Brent the Bossman pulled out a forced matrix when discussing compensation. Let's take a look at these positive features.

First, a forced matrix is easy to understand. If you have been around network marketing for any amount of time, you know that there are so many convoluted and very hard to understand marketing plans. It is like the plans are purposely made confusing.

Brent Jones' company was relatively successful, but a few tweaks to the branding and business plan in the following years would eventually boost Real Water to legitimacy. The company opened a production plant in Henderson, Nevada, and became a more traditional retailer without the MLM stench. The company filled its new-look boxy blue bottles with its self-mixed water concoction and slapped labels on them advertising beyond alkalinity, a scientific impossibility achieved courtesy of

of a proprietary technology called E2. Hi, my name is Brent Jones. I'm president of Real Water. We're the owners of the E2 technology, which stands for Electron Energized. I'm really excited today. We're going to explain our product. It's called Real Water. Our water is just the opposite. It's alkalized and it is an antioxidant. It's negative charged. It wants to donate electrons.

For the first time ever, Real Water's E2 technology allowed its seven times filtered, UV light treated, negative ion infused water to be shelf stable. Translation, retail ready. Again, just a reminder, there is no such thing as negatively ionized water. Radio station KNPR confirmed this by asking David Hatchett, the chemistry department chair at UNLV.

Real Water's claim is that a purification process called, I believe it's E-squared technology, adds electrons to the water through electrical restructuring. Is this scientifically possible? No. Yeah, well, tell that to everyone who was buying the Real Water bottles from the company's website, or the customers who had signed up for regular delivery service of Real Water in five-gallon jugs. You're going to tell me that all of these people were simply misled by marketing?

What's next? Are you going to tell me that there is a real water concentrate with the E2 technology that you can simply pour into any coffee, tea, or wine and make it healthier and taste better? Oh, really? Okay, I'm listening.

Well, how would you like to take a $5 bottle of wine and transform it so that it tastes like a $30 bottle? Sounds too good to be true. It isn't. Try Real Water Concentrate. Just a few squirts and your wine will taste amazing. That's Brent Jones' wife, Amy Jones. Hi, I'm Amy Jones with Real Water. Amy was the Director of Communications or Executive Vice President of Real Water. Maybe both, depending on the day.

After a few squirts, Brent and Amy's son Blaine joined the family business as well. Blaine Jones was also Executive Vice President. Hello, my name is Blaine Jones and I'm the Executive Vice President of Real Water. By 2012, the family business was thriving. Its products could now be found in Sprouts and Whole Foods supermarkets in Nevada, California, Arizona, and Utah. Convenience stores were stocking Real Water on their shelves. The distinctive blue bottle had also made several candid appearances in tabloids

where it was being lugged or chugged by several A-list celebrities, alkaline water had officially hit the mainstream. As a result, Real Water started sponsoring professional athletes, local BMXers and skateboarders at first, before branching out into mixed martial arts. In fact, Brent Jones, such an enthusiast for the sport, eventually created his own MMA league and called it Real MMA.

Real Water sponsored a ton of the fighters. Most notably, Stephen Bonner, the UFC Hall of Famer credited with propelling mixed martial arts into the mainstream thanks to a classic bout with Forrest Griffin in April 2005. Stephen Bonner was a living legend of the sport.

A huge get for Brent Jones and real water. So my favorite use for real water is to bring one of these in the gym. I'll sweat out like 10 pounds in a training session, no lie. And this way I could rehydrate myself, but at the same time counter all that lactic acid that's building up in my muscles, counter all that acidic ammonia that's building up in there, and get my electrolytes at the same time.

So if a legend like Stephen Bonner, the All-American Psycho, likes real water, real water would be wonders for you, too. Get real. Oh, dude, I drink so much of this. I have it right off the line, too. Usually, if you have it right off the line, like the pH is 10, it's too strong. It can give you diarrhea, but my body's...

With real water, Brent Allen Jones had built a successful for-profit business from the ground up. He was intimately familiar with the regulatory hurdles and the weight of tax burdens shouldered by American business moguls like himself. So fearless, so selfless, so enlightened by the fruit.

Naturally, Brent Jones the businessman felt called upon to pay this knowledge forward. Naturally, Brent Jones the businessman felt this experience qualified him to govern you. The following is a paid advertisement for the Swindle Valued Listener Rewards Program.

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Go to valuedlistener.com to sign up using Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Patreon. No long-term commitments, satisfaction guaranteed, foreign currency accepted. Cancel any time. Please, just give us your money. Hi, my name is Brent Jones. I'm running in Senate District 9, and I'm not a politician either, as you've heard many people say.

I'm a businessman, and I just got so fed up with being... I like to use the expression, I'm tired of getting hit over the head with a two-by-four every other week wondering which government bureaucracy is going to come in and just mess with me. And it's so hard to create jobs. I felt so many times just like putting my head...

and just saying, you know what, I should just give up and go on welfare. But you know what, if everybody started doing that, then we'd really be in a problem. We're either going to go to socialism, communism, as that nice t-shirt showed us, or we're going to take this country back and get back to our constitutional roots and create, again, the most prosperous country this world's ever seen. When Elizabeth Houseth resigned from her state senate seat for Nevada's 9th district in 2012,

Brent Allen Jones seized the opportunity. The pro-business, constitutional conservative had grown displeased with the current direction of the state government, which reminded him a lot of the draconian policies implemented in California, Jones' home state from which he had fled to find less regulated freedom. Brent Jones considered himself apt for the position, because again, as he would incessantly remind everyone on the campaign trail, Brent Jones was not a politician.

Brent Jones was a businessman. I'm not a politician, I'm a businessman. Brent Jones promised his District 9 constituents that if elected, he would ensure low taxes, get rid of excessive regulations to create jobs, and vote to slash the budget for public education. Rumor has it Nevada schools were teaching kids history. Hello, my name is Brent Jones and I'm running for State Senate District 9.

I'm not a politician, I'm a businessman. I own Real Water and I know personally what it takes to deal with, make a business successful and deal with excessive taxation, excessive regulation. Haven't you heard? Brent Jones knew personally what it takes to make a business successful. He employed 40 to 60 people in Nevada and Arizona. The Tea Party and the Ron Paul supporters agreed he was the right person for the job. The poster boys for well-thought-out public policy.

Unfortunately for Brent Jones, the residents of Nevada's 9th district disagreed. Jones was defeated in the primary, most likely due to a story resurfacing from the 90s in which the former California lawyer ripped off a mentally disabled man with ostrich eggs in Scientology.

but brent jones would not be dissuaded from his legislative dreams in 2014 he reset his sights on the 35th district seat in the state of nevada's lower assembly and jones was elected as part of a red wave of republican victories that swept the country that year during his two-year term he sponsored several unsuccessful conservative efforts like voter id laws and eliminating the state's health insurance exchange

Brent Jones was also implicated in an extortion scheme to force other GOP members into changing their votes for assembly speaker, but he was never indicted. Brent Jones ran for re-election in 2016, but again, his Scientology roots came back to haunt him. During his campaign, multiple former employees and volunteers filed discrimination lawsuits against Jones, claiming that he had required them to attend Scientology facilities and to complete Scientology courses.

a former brand ambassador for Real Water, said she was denied pay and eventually fired after refusing to watch her boss's propaganda videos like this one. If you hold your creation, you visualize it, you start making it very real, the physical world will start to accept your world and the outside physical world will actually start to align itself with you. How does this happen? It happens with your 100% confident and positive intention.

Brent Jones responded publicly to the allegations in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. The courses had nothing to do with Scientology, Jones claimed. The philosophies were based more on a comparable pile of bullshit called The Secret, a popular book in those days that touted the power of positive thinking and the law of attraction, endorsed by daytime TV talk show gurus like Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres.

Brent Jones claimed the lawsuits were meritless and quote, "merely a tactic for the opposition to create a good political campaign attack." Adding, "Apparently the young lady is looking for a free payday and this is not her first lawsuit. Some may call her a gold digger." Jones admits to showing videos but says they're self-help type videos. We do things to encourage and help our employees develop.

Nothing with religion whatsoever. Assemblyman Jones thinks this lawsuit has nothing to do with religion at all. He says it's politically motivated. We've heard that this is the establishment's attempt to take me out because I'm a very vocal critic of the governor's tax. We asked lawmakers about this and got the following response from Assembly Majority Leader Paul Anderson. Quote, for Brent Jones to blame anyone but himself is absurd and laughable. It goes to show Brent's distorted view of reality. End quote.

Despite Brent Jones' positive thoughts, he was outraged, outspent, and ultimately defeated by his Democratic opponent in his bid for re-election to the Nevada State Assembly in 2016. During that same cycle, Brent Jones' son Blaine was also defeated in his quest to become District 21's assemblyman.

But something else happened that year that emboldened the owners of Real Water to continue their pursuit of a free market wet dream. Now look it, we have a chance right now. We've been going the wrong way for 65 years as other speakers, but we have a chance right now because we elected Donald Trump president.

Donald Trump is fighting those swamp creatures so hard that they're distracted right now. They're worried and they're attacking him so hard. But what does that do? That means that a lot of people's eyes are off the ball and that's where we need to step up. We need to be the Calvary. We need to come in and really make it happen. 'Cause I'm willing to take the hits. I'm willing to, when I come out, what I say, have OSHA show up and find me every other month, have the fire department come in and tell me I have to shut down if I don't spend another $10,000.

I'm willing to take those hits because I know how important it is for my children to enjoy this great country because we are the only country that is the beacon of hope and prosperity in the entire world. In 2018, Brent Jones, the water martyr, ran for Lieutenant Governor of Nevada with the same old song and dance: low taxes, deregulation, defund, education. This is the dumbing down of our society.

We are indoctrinating our kids. We're dumbing them down. We're teaching them that our founding fathers are bad men. They're bad people. We're teaching them that capitalism is bad. That's what we're paying our money to do. We've got to stop it because we are not the bad people. We are the good people. We've got to use the history and logic.

You know, 60 years ago, there was a book written called Atlas Shrugged. Brent Allen Jones destroys his opponent with history and logic, but he lost the election. That same year, his wife Amy campaigned for his old 35th district seat in the assembly. She, too, was a loser. It was becoming as clear as alkaline ionized water that the Joneses' family future in politics was fading. Luckily, they had real water to keep them afloat.

For now. It seemed like every member of the Carrier family in Las Vegas got sick at some point during the fall of 2020.

Ryan and Erica Carrier's two-year-old son, Finn, came down with some kind of stomach bug. Ryan was just getting over something himself, and their five-year-old daughter, Hera, caught something similar. But unlike her father and little brother, Hera's condition gradually worsened. Constant complaining, Erica Carrier told CBS News. For weeks, it was, Mommy, my tummy hurts, I don't feel good. Until eventually, Hera stopped eating entirely on November 10th, 2020.

Hospital staff became quite alarmed after analyzing 5-year-old Hera Carrier's vitals. Her blood sugar levels were extremely low, and her ALT levels, which is an enzyme that is released in the bloodstream when liver cells are damaged, were extremely elevated. The numbers reflected full-blown liver failure, like Hera had consumed something highly toxic, although the source of the toxin could not be determined at the time.

Hera Carrier was airlifted to a children's hospital in Salt Lake City. She underwent a spinal tap and two blood transfusions. The doctors informed her parents that Hera would most likely require a liver transplant in the coming days. It's absolutely like going into shock, you know, thinking that your five-year-old might need a transplant. There are many things that make you fall to your knees in life, right? We all fell to our knees, right? And we all prayed it.

Those prayers were answered. Over the next 10 days, Hera Carrier's condition gradually improved. Her liver enzymes returned to normal and she was discharged from the hospital just in time for Thanksgiving. A few months earlier, the Wren family in Las Vegas had faced the exact same situation. Two-year-old Christopher Noah Wren was hospitalized in August 2020 with an unknown ailment. The normal range for ALT in the bloodstream is 29 to 33 units per liter.

Christopher's ALT units per liter measured at over 5,000. His mother Emily, whose own ALT levels measured in the hundreds at the time, was told that her son was a candidate for an immediate liver transplant for an estimated cost of $800,000 out of pocket. Fortunately, just like Hera Carrier, Christopher Noah Wren recovered before the transplant was necessary.

and those two weren't the only ones. Summerlin Children's Hospital in Vegas recognized a trend. That fall, multiple children, ranging from seven months old to five years old, in Clark County, had been admitted with symptoms resembling acute liver failure, certainly a cause for concern.

At the same time, Centennial Hills Hospital in Vegas recognized the trend in adults. For example, Tina Hartshorn was admitted on November 9, 2020. Her blood sugar was so low, doctors thought she might be diabetic. But she wasn't. Ms. Hartshorn racked up nine days and a $100,000 medical bill before recovering. When I was in the hospital, I really thought I was going to die. And that was one of the most scariest feelings that I've ever had as a mom.

especially someone who lost their parents at a young age. I didn't want my kids to go through any part of their life without me." That's Lorraine Caliana Pruitt. Similar symptoms carried her to the verge of death. Fortunately, she survived. Unfortunately, 69-year-old Kathleen Ryerson did not. Kathleen had endured endless medical tests since September 2020, but doctors could not figure out why her liver was failing.

Before she was hospitalized for a second time in October, Kathleen could barely get out of bed. Kathleen Ryerson succumbed to her illness on November 11, 2020. All of the aforementioned patients were eventually diagnosed with acute non-viral hepatitis, which is an inflammation of the liver that can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer, liver failure, and death. It's typically caused by exposure to toxins.

And what toxin was responsible for inflicting this condition on all these Clark County, Nevada residents? After interviews, it was determined that it could only be one. There was one common link. Real water. Beyond alkalinity.

New this morning, a warning regarding the bottled water brand Real Water. Five Nevada children were hospitalized with liver failure after drinking that beverage. They have since recovered. Six more cases of hepatitis are being linked to a brand of alkaline drinking water. At issue is Real Water. A total of 11 confirmed cases of hepatitis are now linked to the brand.

The latest involve adults. The other five involve children, all needed to be hospitalized. The Southern Nevada Health District says it's also investigating 50 additional cases. Hello. We feel it is important to issue a personal statement regarding the recent FDA investigation associated with real water. First, we'd like to express our deepest sympathy and concern over the events that led to the inquiry.

We started Real Water over 13 years ago with the intention to provide a healthy product that benefits and elevates people's lifestyles. We're deeply saddened to learn that anything otherwise could be the result. I often reach out to tell you about Real Water's commitment to quality. Your trust matters to me and I'm proud of how far we've come. Therefore, this recall is deeply concerning because you should never have any worry about the safety of any of our products.

I want to personally apologize to all of our customers and I assure you that the lessons learned from this will drive further improvement in the brand. We are grateful for your ongoing support and will continue to do everything we can to meet and exceed your expectations. We value you and your continued trust in Real Water. Thank you.

On March 16, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration opened an investigation into Real Water. The agency issued an outbreak advisory for the brand, quote, We are advising consumers, restaurants, and retailers to not consume, cook with, sell, or serve Real Water alkaline water until more information is known about the cause of the illnesses."

Real Water was pulled from store shelves nationwide. The company ceased production and voluntarily recalled its bottles and concentrate. Real Water's founder and president, Brent Allen Jones, followed with a statement and an apology video to emphasize that the company was concerned about its customers' health and it was fully cooperating. That didn't last long.

Real Water stopped answering the phone. The FDA's requests for records were ignored, probably off recommendations from legal counsel, considering the barrage of lawsuits coming down the pipe. Tonight, the legal battle over Real Water is growing. But new lawsuits now link the Henderson-based water company to the deaths of three dogs, as well as acute liver failure of a UFC fighter.

Well, the water is also being blamed for a woman's stroke and also severe illnesses in multiple children as well. And on top of that, the FDA says that real water is not cooperating with its investigation.

Six lawsuits were filed two weeks after the FDA's initial warning, and more were on the way. This is Will Kemp, an attorney representing some of the victims. So far we filed two lawsuits, but we've been contacted by approximately 40 people who have been hospitalized. One person's had a liver transplant. We'll probably file that case next week. Two people have died. Some of the newly named victims included Miriam Brody,

Miles Hunwardson, Christina Sosa, Jasmine Schaefer, and 23-year-old Grace Zimmerman, who had part of her liver and gallbladder removed because she had developed liver cancer.

All of them consumed real water with some regularity. Some even continued to drink the product after being discharged from the hospital because the root cause of their afflictions hadn't yet been determined. The lawsuit says the 23-year-old drank the bottled water for several months in 2019. Doctors diagnosed her with liver cancer last year. In a separate lawsuit filed last week, lawyers claim a home delivery customer in her 60s died from liver failure.

Real Water was also being blamed for a woman's stroke, two miscarriages, and half a dozen dead dogs. Even Real Water's UFC Hall of Fame spokesperson, Stefan Bonner, was down for the count. What's up? Five days in the hospital now. I was really out of it, just so confused and disoriented. When I got in here five days ago, they asked me who the president was. I said Bush.

I didn't have the year right or the month. It was pretty bad. But apparently my ammonia levels were over 200. And when I asked the doctor if that was bad, he said usually people die at that level. And normal is 20. But levels are back down. He thought maybe it was salmonella.

Stefan Bonner spent five days in the hospital in November 2020 with acute liver failure. He was also suing Real Water, but sadly he would never get to see the results. After Stefan's battle with liver failure, his physical health and luck continued to worsen.

In September 2021, he fractured a vertebrae in a post-MMA career professional wrestling match. That fractured vertebrae led to a near-fatal staph infection on his spine which led to pain pills and an unfortunate video of Stefan confronting the staph at a hospital for more.

After a month-long stay and shedding 36 pounds, Stefan Bonner returned home, only to lose everything in a house fire less than six months later. What's up, everyone? I'm sorry I missed the Paradigm Pro Wrestling event. It takes a lot to put me on my ass, but this did it. This did it.

A week after food poisoning, Stephan Bonner died on December 22nd, 2022. It was ruled an accidental fentanyl drug overdose. He was 45 years old. At the time, the lawsuit in which Stephan Bonner was a party was progressing through the courts.

No settlement or judgment of any kind had been made, but more information about exactly what happened was being made public, which, in addition to the illnesses, gave Nevadans even more reasons to be angry. For instance, the source of real water's water was determined to come from the Lake Mead Reservoir on the Colorado River.

In other words, it was the same water the city of Las Vegas used for its public supply. Ordinary tap water, which is already alkaline, by the way. To their credit, Real Water did treat the water before bottling and selling it, and there was nothing illegal about the practice. But the immorality of it all gave residents pause. Nevada is one of the driest states in the country. Water is a fleeting resource.

And here's a man, Brent Allen Jones, who was exporting the local supply for profit. A local supply built and maintained by tax dollars. Imagine that. But again, credit where credit is due.

There was some processing on the company's end, primarily adding the real water concentrate to the tap water, which many theorized, including attorney Will Kemp, is the step in the process where everything went wrong. I think what happened is they just put too much of the concentrate in, and the batches that people had had too many metals in it, and that's why you had the liver react to it, and you had all the liver failures.

In April 2021, as part of the ongoing litigation, Will Kemp deposed Real Water's lead water technician, Casey Aiken. Aiken was a former vacuum and timeshare salesman. More recently, he was a strip club promoter, but lost that gig because of the pandemic. That's how Casey ended up working at Real Water, loading bottles onto pallets for $10 an hour.

Within months, Casey Aiken said he was promoted to lead water technician by Blaine Jones. Casey says he had no experience whatsoever and only received a, quote, couple hours of hands-on training. Casey's new job was to dump the real liquid concentrate into the water, mix it, and test it. Simple as that.

However, one day in September or October, Aiken couldn't remember exactly. He observed a low reading on the alkalinity levels while mixing a new batch. He called his boss Blaine for guidance. Casey said Blaine directed him to add more real concentrate to the water until the desired alkalinity levels were achieved. Problem solved. He told you to add more concentrate, correct? Correct.

But he didn't tell you how much? No, he didn't tell me how much. You do understand that if you potentially add more concentrate than you usually use, that there could potentially be a problem with the water? I wouldn't think so. You would think so? No, I wouldn't. Okay, but you don't know what's in the concentrate? If I'm putting it into somebody that's ingesting it, I would think that it's safe no matter what. That's my thought. As we sit here today, you don't have any idea what was in the liquid concentrate? I have a clue. Okay.

and you don't know where it came from not a clue if i thought we were making people sick i wouldn't have made it lead water technician casey aiken was completely ignorant about what was in the concentrate and its effects in excessive amounts his ignorance was exemplified days after brewing the fresh batch when he took home a five gallon jug of real water for his two-year-old dog a dog that was soon diagnosed with the liver illness

So what, exactly, was in the real water concentrate that was causing hepatitis and liver failure? Well, tests eventually revealed that it was a chemical called hydrazine, a chemical most commonly used in rocket fuel.

RealWater's lawyers argued that the company had no idea that hydrazine was in the water, and furthermore, had no idea how to test for it. Therefore, the company had not acted maliciously, but rather, unintentionally, negligently, quote, "...this is a failure of imagination."

The jury is set to begin deliberations today in a lawsuit against a local bottled water company. The company, Real Water, was sued by multiple plaintiffs, including a family of a 69-year-old woman who died from liver disease. The lawsuit alleges that the company hired unqualified employees to manage the water testing.

In October 2023, a state court jury awarded more than $228 million in damages to several plaintiffs, including Kathleen Ryerson, the 69-year-old woman who died. In February 2024, another jury awarded $130 million to five people who suffered liver damage.

We want to send a message to food and beverage manufacturers that they should be committed to quality assurance, attorney Will Kemp told the Associated Press. At least 15 cases, including more than 50 plaintiffs, are pending. Other defendants in the case, including retailers, convenience stores, and testing meter companies, reportedly reached confidential settlements before trial, and up to this point, no criminal charges have been filed, and it doesn't look like there ever will be.

However, Real Water and its parent company, Affinity Lifestyles, have filed for bankruptcy. According to documents, Brent Jones and his family, who have also filed for personal bankruptcy, shut down Real Water and fled pro-business Nevada for pro-business Texas. They're reportedly living in a rental home near Houston.

Also, according to the filing, the Joneses have less than $30,000 in assets and more than $4 million in debt, which is rapidly mounting thanks to the ongoing litigation. Reportedly, both Brent and Amy are unemployed, with less than $100 in their checking account, and they're living off borrowed funds from family, like prototypical welfare queens. Think positive.

Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen, with original music by Trevor Howard, a.k.a. The Former, a.k.a. The Free Radical. For more information about Swindled, you can visit swindledpodcast.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok at swindledpodcast.

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My name is Terrence. I'm from Philly. Hi, my name is Krista from Twinsburg, Ohio. My name is Fred from Portland, Oregon. And I'm a concerned citizen and valued listener. Motherfucking crooks. And I ain't got time for greed.

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