Help Phil Flanigan Reclaim His Life

Phil Flanigan is a world class musician. He is a bass player who has performed with many of the finest musicians throughout the country. Now he finds himself in a very difficult situation and needs our help.

Here, in his words, he describes what has happened to him.

’I had just visited my brother in Geneva, NY with all my possessions in my boxvan. I headed back to where I had been camping, Challis, Idaho, where I had a P.O. Box, and had been talking to real estate agents.

On my way back to Idaho, driving through Kansas, I was suddenly blinded by an extremely bright light in my mirror. As I tried to regain my sight, I ran over a wire stretched across the road which flattened my front tires, at which point I had to pull over. There were police behind me so I opened my window. They ordered me out of my boxvan at gunpoint.

They arrested me without saying what for and took me to the county jail in Lincoln, Kansas where they charged me with driving with an expired license, expired insurance, and fleeing and evading. This was on September 30, 2021, during Covid. I was held for 99 days, no phone call until day 33 and was kept incommunicado until day 90.

I then posted bail and got out, only to find the boxvan and its contents had been sold.

I had no choice but to take a run down apartment in Lincoln, where for the next 9 months I was stonewalled, arrested 2 more times and spent a total of 5 months in jail. When I was released from jail, a deputy took me to the Salina, Kansas homeless shelter on September 13, 2022.

Since then I have been trying to survive and get my life back.

The value of everything that was stolen, including my vintage musical instruments, family heirlooms, oriental rugs, valuable coin collection, memorabilia, ID’s, electronics, clothes, in short everything, worth currently in the $250,000 range.

Please help me to regain some sort of decent life. I can assure all that having no identification of any kind for 20 months while at the same time suffering from hunger and homelessness at the hands of others is devastating.

I have explored as many potential legal remedies as humanly possible to this point and as my Kansas attorney said, “It will only mean further loss for you.”

I have now relocated to Florida. The challenges remain daunting. Making ends meet is a struggle. There is very little work, yet I persevere.

A heartfelt thank you to all who have contributed thus far.’