Writing the wrongs
By John Joyce
Published in News on March 1, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Richard Taylor and his daughter Italy, 7, hold his two books Friday. The latest of the two, "Wrongfully Accused, Rightfully Acquitted," is about his experiences between the years of 2013 and 2015 when he was falsely accused of rape, abduction, kidnapping and assault.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Italy hugs Taylor, her father. Taylor said the relationship with his daughter is great. In his book, "Brushes with Death: The Blood of Jesus," he tells of an incident where he was shot while holding his daughter.
Some men's spirits are harder to kill than others.
In rarer cases, so is the man.
When a 2013 accusation of rape failed to effectively end Goldsboro native Richard Taylor's life by sending him to jail for the rest of his days, nature decided to take a shot at him.
Three months after being acquitted by a jury of his peers, a persistent headache landed Taylor in the hospital.
Not one, but two brain aneurysms threatened to cripple or kill him.
The odds were long, but that was nothing new.
Taylor has been facing -- and beating -- the odds all his life.
"I was falsely accused of rape, abduction, kidnapping and assault," Taylor said. He stresses the word, "falsely."
Taylor, 38, details the sordid drama in his second self-published novel, "Wrongfully Accused, Rightfully Acquitted," available now on Amazon.com.
The accusations lodged against him came in June 2013. Taylor would not be free again until the not guilty verdict was read in court more than two years later.
The trial started on a Monday, Nov. 4, 2015. "I was not released until the verdict, the end of that week, Nov. 8," he said.
Taylor's life story is one filled with all the dramatic twists and turns of a Hollywood thriller.
Coming up in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Goldsboro, Taylor spent much of his young life surrounded by figures he aspired to emulate. But his heroes were not the athletes, musicians or movie stars most kids hang posters of on their bedroom walls. His were the older crowd he hung around, the cousins, the uncles, the guys from the neighborhood.
They sold and used drugs. They carried and used guns. And they caroused with and used women.
Taylor, now clean and sober, said he realizes neither he nor his role models were really after the money or the highs or the easy women they pursued day after day, night after night.
What they were really chasing -- what always eluded them -- was an escape from the pain.
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Taylor had time to reflect while sitting in jail.
He said it was easier to do time when he knew he had done something wrong. Being accused of something so terrible which he knew he did not do made serving time awaiting trial almost unbearable.
Yet, today, he maintains a positive attitude.
"I consider myself blessed," he said. "I think about where I was and what I have been through, and I look at where I could be today."
Taylor admits it might be hard for someone to stay positive, having endured all the things he has in life. He said by reflecting on those things, and through prayer and reading Scripture, he is better able to cope.
"But I look at where I am. I look at all that and see how I came out of it," he said. "That, and my daughter."
Taylor's relationship today with his daughter, Italy, is great, he said. He often takes her to school and picks her up. He spends time with her and teaches her the things she'll need to know in life, things she can use both now and as she grows up.
But, as outlined in his first book, "Brushes with Death: The Blood of Jesus," published in 2012, neither of them would be here today had fate not intervened.
After moving to Richmond, Va., in 2002, Taylor slid back into the drug game. By then, Taylor had become a four-time felon, and he had hoped the move would help him distance himself from the pitfalls of his hometown.
It did not.
Taylor's illegal activity caught up to him one evening at a hotel he was staying at with his daughter. He admits he was selling drugs at the time. And somebody close to him knew it.
On Oct. 31, 2008, they came calling.
"I was shot while holding my daughter in my arms," he said.
Italy, 3 months old at the time, was not hit. But Taylor was. He would recover, but was convicted of drug possession and placed on probation.
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Taylor admits it took a lot for him to finally wise up and straighten out his life. He battled his addictions to drugs and alcohol through a 12-step program and has received his 30-day, 60-day and 90-day chips so far with no relapses.
"I just want people to, like I had to, realize who you are and stop trying to be somebody else, who society wants you to be or who your friends or even your parents want you to be," he said. "Be who you are, and do what makes you comfortable."
Taylor completed his college degree in May 2015 -- an associate's in social sciences from Tidewater Community College -- and has repaired his strained relationship with his family.
It hasn't been easy, he says, nor will it be tomorrow, but it will get easier with time.
"I have a job, I graduated from school, I have my mother and father," he said.
Both his parents are pastors, as is a longtime friend and local church leader, Terry Jones. Taylor credits Jones with helping reshape his outlook just before going into surgery. Taylor did not know at the time whether he would survive the procedure or if he did, what kind of physical and cognitive limitations he would be facing.
"That really scared me," he said.
He called Jones the night before the operation. He said he just wanted to talk to his friend, but he felt the conversation getting away from him.
"I credit Terry. When I called him it was almost like saying goodbye. But then he asked me, he said, 'Wait a minute, how are you going into this?'"
The two talked about the importance of maintaining a positive outlook and then prayed together.
Two days after the surgery, Taylor was doing his homework in his hospital bed. Three months later, he finished writing his book.
Now, the former drug dealer turned author is operating his own publishing company, Taylor House Publishing, and is planning on continuing his education. He wants to study mass communications and broadcasting.
In the meantime, Taylor said he is focused on helping other writers self-publish and promote their own projects.
And unlike when he sold drugs, he said he is not in the business to chase a dollar.
"My main goal is to help other authors get their works out," he said. "You have to be ready."