Sunny Sheu was a computer specialist and Taiwanese immigrant to Queens, NY. When his house was bought by Centex Home Equity from a nonexistent person in 2005, a form of real estate fraud, Sunny attempted to pursue legal action. His case was presided over by one Judge Golia, who, even after the initial fraudsters were arrested, refused to return his home.

Sunny Sheu then attempted to contact other authorities, and gathered evidence that he believed pointed to certain improprieties on the part of Golia. For this, he said he was kidnapped by a couple of NYPD officers, brutalised, and threatened. He did not give up, though. He contacted a senator and was refused an opportunity to speak publicly, then was promised a meeting which never happened. He went to the FBI seeking witness protection, but they rebuffed him, saying only, "Be careful."

By June 2010, he believed he had enough evidence of Golia's wrongdoing to force him off his case, including alleged failures to disclose liabilities for several years, ranging from alleged failure to disclose mortgages held by HSBC for his properties to alleged conflict of interest in owning Flushing Bank stock and getting $750,000 lower rate and mortgage than market value.

On 26 June 2010, Sunny Sheu was found in a coma on the street in Queens, and later died in hospital. The NYPD refused to investigate, citing a witness who has never been produced who claimed to have seen him fall over. The Queens DA said that an investigation was cancelled because there were no witnesses. The ER doctor who saw Sunny said there was no visible injury and that he died of an internal aneurysm; the medical examiner who signed his death certificate saw things differently, noting that his cause of death was "undetermined" but preceded by severe blunt force trauma to the head, including skull fractures and brain injuries. Under New York law, any undetermined death requires an investigation. No investigation has proceeded.

Most of the media has refused to take this story up so far; only a few independent outlets have been willing to report on it. You may read their reporting in the links below:

• www.truth-out.org/news/item/10943-the-death-of-sunny-sheu
• www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/06/sunny-sheu-murdered-for-investigating-ny-foreclosure-judge-joseph-golia.html
• www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhDrff84ZAA

DISCLAIMER 1: Rose with Teeth has no affiliation with the family, friends, or associates of Sunny Sheu as of the time of writing, and as of such time this song is not officially endorsed by any of them. I became interested in this case a couple years ago while researching corruption at various levels of government and it's stuck with me, haunting me ever since. I believe that any story like this is in the public's interest to be disseminated and understood widely. Thus I wrote a song about it.

DISCLAIMER 2: For legal purposes, neither this song nor any accompanying media (images, descriptions, etc.) is making any allegations against anyone. This is an artistic work based on speculation and imagination.

This is likely going to be the last "non-album single" released before my next album, but that, like everything else in existence, is subject to change.