Winston O'Boogie / David Hinson

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Bryson

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 5, 2004
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407
Location
Santa Barbara/Woodland Hills
Sad Strange news...

Quoting Dave Kulka of Studio Electronics:

"In April 2010 I posted a thread on Whatever Works announcing the theft of equipment and parts from my shop. Charges were filed and recently, criminal and civil trials were concluded. I'd like to let people know what happened, see if other victims would like to chime in, and pass on some hard learned lessons.

The person who stole from my shop is David John Hinson. David is an audio technician, originally from England, who has worked in the states for several years. He had sent us a resume last fall and worked in our shop from November 2009 to March 2010. In March we noticed some expensive parts were missing, and, believing that he had taken them, sent him packing. We later realized that two valuable pieces of equipment (one belonging to a client) were also gone. At about the same time I learned, to my surprise, that Mr. Hinson was in already jail on other charges.

We got a lucky break when a local (and honest) engineer heard about a missing item and contacted us. He had bought it after seeing it on Craigslist, not knowing it was stolen, and was good enough to return it to us. He provided good documentation of the purchase from Hinson, which gave the DA enough evidence to press charges, and apparently convinced Hinson to accept the judge's offer of a one-year sentence in exchange for a no contest plea. I also won a judgment in civil court, though the judge ruefully commented "Good luck collecting it."

I've learned that Mr. Hinson was also convicted felony grand theft in 2009, in a case that was similar to mine. And in the last few months, other people who encountered him have contacted me, leading me to believe there have been numerous other victims over the years. Perhaps some of Mr. Hinson's other victims will speak up, here or elsewhere.

This has been a giant hassle that could easily have been avoided.

Many people in our small industry know each other, or know of one another. Like many studios and audio businesses, my company is a small “family” operation. I’ve operated Studio electronics since 1981 with virtually no problems, so I had a sort of blind trust in people that increased over the years. It's easy to let your guard down and become careless -- this is a creative industry, with lots of crazy characters, right? It is, but a little caution goes a long way.. I doubt that CNN or Apple Computer would hire someone without a background check but until recently, I saw no need for it. $20 and a few minutes on one of the background check sites would have saved me a lot of grief. Even a free check on the L.A. County Sheriff's site http://app4.lasd.org/iic/ajis_search.cfm would have told me a lot. One needn’t be paranoid or overly suspicious of people...just take simple precautions.

I got a lot of help from numerous law enforcement officials and audio professionals, for which I'm very grateful. That's one great thing about our close-knit industry -- we do help each other. I hope that others can learn from my experience, and avoid similar problems."

 
Wow, worse that we thought.  Hate to hear it.  His recent arrest and sentence does indeed show up with that L.A. County search.  See the "Hello Shoppers" thread for more recent history.   

The source:

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/m/491990/0/
 
So Winston O'Boogie has a relation on all this??
David Hinson = Winston?

thanks
 
Oh boy, it's pretty sad. On the one hand he is a gifted guy and designed some pretty popular pieces of gear. He also made very valuable contributions here. But obviously he does have serious issues. There had been rumours about him for quite a while. Some said he was on drugs (which would explain a need for more money than he can honestly earn), at one point I even heard he was dead. Which obviously wasn't true.

It's also weird and disturbing to see one forum member steal from another. That's almost canibalism. Actually, biting the hand of the one who feeds you is canibalism.
 
one google later (for the revolution mic pre) and I found a picture of him on flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peff/100477177/

I think I met him at AES in San Fran not so long ago. Seemed like a nice guy.

What a pity.
 
WOW, had no Idea. I have had numerous encounters with John  , and he never
showed this dark side. In fact , he was a very friendly and helpful individual. I'm sure people
turn to these acts when times get tough. No excuse really, but sometimes these things happen
for reasons not easliy explained or understood. I hope all parties with missing gear get cooperation from
David on their return. Most of all , David is a talented individual who should realize that
honesty and integrity weigh heavily. Cooperation, restitution, and a willingness
to change can reverse this whole situation.
 
Ok. So John Hinson was Winston O'boogie?

And he was busted for thieving? Am i getting this right?
 
And this is unrelated  [ or what was that all about ]
to the time when he deleted all his Winston'o'boogie posts here ?
 
Still pissed about him not delivering those REDD PCBs I paid for, what, 4-5 years ago?  :mad:
 
Evil, like the Devil...

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And I recall enjoying some of his posts. All in all a rather sad story, really.
:(
 
I don't really want to pile onto this.  I will just say that in the very few direct dealings I've had with him, he was courteous, pleasant and even charitable.  I hope he can straighten out his life and make things right all around.  Get right, John.
 
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