Mother of man detained in Russia fears her son won't get a fair trial
Glenda Garcia, mother of Michael Travis Leake, an English teacher and musician arrested in Russia in June, sits down with 23ABC's Corey O'Leary to discuss her son's conditions in Russian custody.
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00:00 Now to an update on Bakersfield native Michael Travis Leak, who was arrested in Russia back
00:05 in June.
00:06 Here's 23 ABC's Cory O'Leary who spoke with Leak's mother about what her son is going
00:11 through.
00:12 Travis Leak graduated from West High School in 1980 after spending a majority of his childhood
00:17 in Bakersfield.
00:19 Now he finds himself thousands of miles away from the city he grew up in, detained in a
00:23 Russian jail on drug charges.
00:25 It's now been around two months since he was initially arrested and it was recently announced
00:30 his detention has been extended.
00:32 Throughout all this he has maintained his innocence.
00:35 I was able to speak with his mother to find out more about his current situation.
00:40 I have been able to correspond with him via letters because I have a contact, a friend
00:46 of his in Russia.
00:48 Leak moved to Moscow in 2010 and has primarily lived there since.
00:52 Teaching English and managing bands in the country's rock scene.
00:55 What has your son been telling you through these letters?
00:58 He's told me he's been in three different prisons, 11 different cells.
01:03 They're all pretty bad, they're all pretty deplorable.
01:07 He's hungry all the time.
01:08 He's had bronchitis a couple of times.
01:10 He says he got that because they make him sleep on the floor some of the time.
01:13 He doesn't always have a bed to sleep in.
01:15 Leak's mother, Glenda Garcia, told me about the frustration she feels being so far away
01:19 and knowing that US officials from the Russian embassy have not been allowed to speak with
01:24 Leak.
01:25 I just worry about his mental, how long he can hold up mentally and physically.
01:31 His words are desperate.
01:32 "You've got to get me out of here, I'm going to die in here.
01:35 They're trying to kill me."
01:38 It's heart-wrenching.
01:39 Russian officials claim that Leak was selling illegal narcotics, charges he denies.
01:44 His arrest comes just three months after the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan
01:48 Gershkovic on espionage charges.
01:50 The US government has deemed Gershkovic wrongfully detained.
01:54 Garcia doesn't believe the charges against her son are legitimate either.
01:57 I feel confident now they're not legitimate.
02:02 Because he's told me for one thing and because I've read what his other friends or colleagues
02:07 in Russia have said in his defense.
02:10 Do you feel like your son is going to get a fair trial?
02:13 I don't.
02:14 I'm afraid he's not going to.
02:17 Leak had worked with rock bands that were critical of the Putin administration and appeared
02:20 in a 2014 of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown where he bluntly talked about corruption in
02:25 the Russian government and recounted an MTV docuseries episode about rock musicians standing
02:30 up to that government that ultimately never aired, alleging this was due to influence
02:35 from the Russian government.
02:36 A foreign government was able to editorially control what American viewers see on their
02:42 TV screens.
02:43 That to me is a scandal of epic proportion.
02:45 Do you feel like he's a victim of something he's not really a part of in a larger political
02:50 sense?
02:51 Definitely.
02:52 Leak has been vocal about his wishes to be freed through a prisoner swap with America.
02:56 His mother hopes that he will soon be deemed wrongfully detained by the US government.
03:01 My biggest hope would be he'd be exonerated.
03:03 It's not my thoughts that it will probably happen that simply, but to get him on the
03:09 wrongfully detained and maybe get him traded, get him out of there somehow.
03:14 For updates about Travis Leak's case, you can head to our website, turn to 23.com.
03:19 At West High, Cori O'Leary, 23 ABC News, connecting you.
03:24 And you may recall just last month, former US Marina Tehachapi native Trevor Reed was
03:28 wounded by shrapnel while fighting for Ukraine against Russia.
03:32 Reed was involved in a prisoner swap last year after he was sentenced to nine years
03:37 in a Russian prison on charges that he assaulted a police officer after a night of heavy drinking.
03:44 Taking a closer look now at some of the most well-known prisoner swaps involving the United
03:49 States, according to research conducted by the New York Times, in 2010, Russians detained
03:54 by the United States were swapped for four American agents who were held in Russian prisons
03:58 after signing written confessions to espionage.
04:02 Then in 2014, the Taliban released Sergeant Bo Bergdahl, who had been held for five years
04:08 after walking off his army base in Afghanistan.
04:10 He was one of five Taliban detainees.
04:14 And most recently, in 2022, WNBA star Brittany Greiner was swapped with Russia for Viktor
04:20 But a Russian arms dealer.