Former WWE star The Velveteen Dream (Patrick Clark) recently appeared as a guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling. During the discussion, Clark talked about his arrests:
“When the false accusations came up, I didn’t know how to approach my family and loved ones and close friends. I didn’t know how to cope. I didn’t know how they would cope and I didn’t want to give it an opportunity to find out because I was afraid I lost so much love and respect. My image was just tarnished in the public forum. I was afraid to know what that looked like in my personal life for my family so I decided to stay in Orlando, Florida for two and a half years longer than I should have. This is where I got into real legal issues. First arrest was in 2019. It was probably a week after Halloween. I went down to Miami to the Hocus Pocus Festival and got some illegal substances from a guy and never used it. I kept it in my wallet. So what do you know? See how God works? He’s got to slow you down and he’s got to humble you in his way. I got pulled over for a headlight infraction. My lights were not on at night. I got pulled over for that. When I’m reaching into my wallet to pull out my ID, a little baggie falls out. This was cocaine. That’s the illegal substance.”
Chris Van Vliet asked, ‘Is this where it got twisted in the headlines or in the news that you did cocaine in front of a police officer?
Patrick Clark: “Yeah, that’s so bizarre. I mean, but what I’ve learned too, is when you don’t speak up for yourself, the narratives will get as big as you allow them to get. I should have been stepping on necks and squishing narratives out the gate, but I sat silent because, one, I didn’t know how to cope, and two, I assumed someone was saving me. Someone would finally be there to my rescue. He came, God did, not in the way that I expected, but this was one of those times where he was saving me.”
Chris Van Vliet said, “If this is 2019, you’re under contract with WWE at the time when this happens. What are the repercussions in WWE for this?”
Patrick Clark responded, “Well, let me see. This was actually dated, actually no. I misspoke. The years are flying by. I’m looking at three court documents right now. First, one is a motion open at 1:53 PM on April 21, 2022, so I was not employed with the WWE at the time. Again, they got me for no lights at night, no lamps or illumination, and possession of cocaine. That was the first arrest in April of 2022. It’s almost two years to the date from the false accusations.”
Chris Van Vliet: “What ends up happening here?”
Patrick Clark: “I finally started listening to somebody that knew better and I got a lawyer. I plead no contendere which is pretty much a not guilty plea, except the arrest, the prosecution has enough evidence to actually adjudicate you guilty. So that’s your way of just saying, ‘Well, you got to prove it.’’ I was under probation for 12 months. The caveat is if I stay on the straight and narrow, I do my 25 hours of community service, and I take all of my drug rehabilitation classes, which I did take, if I get all that done in six months, 14 weeks of classes and 25 hours of community service, then I can have my record sealed.”
Chris Van Vliet: “Then within those twelve months, you get arrested again.”
Patrick Clark: “Within those six months. I had everything finished. I was two weeks away from finishing up community service and I got arrested a second time.”
Chris Van Vliet: “Was this the incident at the gym?”
Patrick Clark: “Yes. TMZ released the footage of this. I did end up biting the employee. I will say that. Because of this second arrest, that was a violation of the probation that was agreed upon on the first arrest, and because it was a violation of probation, I was arrested at the end of that week, the end of the week of the second arrest.”
Chris Van Vliet: “There was a report that you smashed somebody’s head through a car windshield or a car window.”
Patrick Clark: “That’s false. You’re not going to find any paperwork, any warrants, or any affidavits regarding this.”
Chris Van Vliet: “There’s this story that EC3 told about a party at his house and he alleges that you left your camera out in the bathroom recording people when they were going to the bathroom. What actually happened here?”
Patrick Clark: “It’s very simple what happened. EC3, myself, a young lady, and two former talents that I’ve worked with were in downtown Orlando, Wall Street. The bars closed around 2:30 and EC3, Michael Hutter, he lives in downtown Orlando. So EC3 invited myself, the two talents, and the female, who I don’t recall who she was, invited us back to his apartment. EC3 brings out a framed black and white picture of Tom Selleck with a pile of cocaine on this picture of Tom Selleck and he puts it down on his dining room table and, like, let’s party boys.”
Chris Van Vliet: “EC3 said he doesn’t do drugs”
Patrick Clark: “It all takes us the time that it takes us and I know better than most that depending on where we are and what happens in our lives, we can find it extremely difficult to control certain aspects of ourselves. I understand that. It’s no question in my mind that EC3, and I don’t like calling my co-workers by their wrestling name. I think it’s gonna take Mike the time it takes him, but it’s going to be the same work that I’ve had to put in and the same work that many people in the world living and passed on have had to put in, and that work is step number one, admitting that there is an issue that needs to be resolved. Again, no question. I think that substance, I can’t say abuse, but substances are an aspect of Mike’s life that he has a problem controlling. I’ve seen it recently. Mike still follows me on Instagram. As I did some digging, I looked at some YouTube videos. I saw that there was a show Mike was doing. He had the microphone in his hand and Mike, EC3 is talking and berating the crowd and someone from the crowd yells, ‘Why are you still following Velveteen Dream’ which is a great question because if you’re going to make the claims that someone is trying to film you in the privacy of your own home, when substances and drinks are around, forget whatever type of sexual overtone EC3 tried to make with his accusation, I’ve got co-workers, we’ve got co-workers, that were in this room with and you got cocaine and Tom Selleck sitting over here at the table. You got bottles of vodka and tequila and things like this sitting over here at the bar. It’s just not a setting where you would want to have your phone out recording anything anyway, which I was never doing. I think at some point during the night, EC3 walked into the bathroom where my phone was laying flat, saw it, and maybe had some interpersonal conflict on how he wanted to deal with that, but that was never true.”
You can check out the complete interview below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
