A "Short" Statement on Former Employee Daniel Sandoval

Men in glass houses should not throw stones, especially when the person they are throwing stones at has a reputation and character which is the equivalent of Fort Knox surrounded by a wrought iron fence.

This objectively little man, Daniel Sandoval, has already failed to heed this advice in his baseless, pathetic attempt to bring down Professor Jose of The War Room School of Jiu Jitsu.

It’s one of those things where Dan’s lunatic ramblings do not deserve to be justified with a response, but I find that people will fill in the silence with assumptions and I’d rather just bring truths to light.

His best effort is a SWORN statement involving skewed facts, crude assumptions and downright LIES, all of which can be easily disproven by merely asking the people who he has involved with his statement.

I, Muriel Palanca, am one of those people and would like to get some facts straight.

I am the girlfriend of Professor Jose Garcia and have been for about 4 years. I live with him and spend a lot of time with him and the people of The War Room.

Let’s start with the crying incident. Jose and I had an argument, as couples do, and I cried about it. I had also started my period and was feeling extra emotional. I will converse, discuss, debate, argue, fight when I have an issue. Sometimes during my cycle with my hormones raging, I will do all those things AND cry.

On the night in question, yes, I felt overwhelmed, and I cried. Kodi took me into the dressing room and we talked about womanly things and relationships. I left the school after our conversation and showered/ made dinner as I always do. Jose and I talked that night about both of our sides and the issue was resolved. We moved on. That’s it on that. If you’d like more details, I will oblige, but it doesn’t have much relevance to the current situation.

Regarding the part where Jose told me to “shut the fuck up” at a party, I honestly don’t recall him saying that. Kodi even told me that he didn’t say that, it was more like “knock it off”. So this is either a lie or taken out of context. Either way, I was not offended by it, not even enough to remember it. If this is one of Dan’s smoking guns, he needs a bit more firepower than a possible profanity said in jest.

Regarding the accusation of tickling, that’s a flat out lie and can be easily verified by asking Tess. That being said, I would like to talk about a conversation Jose and I have had in the past: We were talking about how he rolls with women. He said something to the effect of, “I’m very careful when I roll with the women. Yeah, I’ll grip sleeves, but if you notice, I don’t really use my hands. If I have to touch or push them, I use my wrists or the heel of my palm.”

Jose has also openly mentioned preferring to roll with the women nowadays because he is “old and broken”. Basically, it is less painful for him to roll with the women because they’re usually not as aggressive as the men. This is about body preservation, not sexual deviance.

The accusations of an affair or “leading up to an affair”, are also completely untrue. I consider Kodi my best friend and Jose considers her a best friend as well. As you can see from this situation with Dan, it’s hard to find good people who one can trust. It is an exceedingly rare and precious gift to have a good and loyal friend. Kodi is that friend. She listens to Jose when he needs someone to confide in and she helps with a lot of the admin work that used to be a huge burden on Jose. She has become an indispensable part of The War Room.

I am so immeasurably grateful to her for everything she does for us.

I work from home two days per week as well as being home on the weekends and evenings. I spend a lot of time with and around Jose. During these times, he and Kodi have phone conversations, a lot of times with me in the room or within hearing distance. They are normal conversations about work, business, life, advice, jokes etc. Kodi and I even have phone conversations and text exchanges on a regular basis. Our whole families have gone camping together on multiple occasions.

We all have a deep friendship where we love and support each other. To someone like Dan, who doesn’t have good and loyal friends, this may seem like a foreign concept- one that may even look like “flirting” to the untrained eye.

Regarding what Dan supposedly witnessed about Jose “threatening” Anthony and Kodi’s family, please talk to them and read their statements because that whole situation is severely out of context and lacking nuance. Jose did not threaten their family.

With Dan’s consistently high usage of marijuana and his spiraling mental state, it is very easy for someone like him to not fully comprehend the situations he is witnessing second hand.

I know that as far as romantic relationships go, Kodi is loyal to her husband Anthony and Jose is loyal to me. It is shown in a million words and actions that would take too long to elaborate here, but I want to give one small concrete example: Kodi does not want to wear even a slightly revealing top to a party with friends because she believes “there are some things only my husband should see.”

I have NEVER felt even an inkling that the relationship between Kodi and Jose is anything more than friendship.

If you can, please ask Jose about why his last marriage ended and his views on cheating. I think hearing it from him will give you a solid understanding of why this accusation is absolutely ludicrous.

Regarding the April situation, she came into The War Room (Jose’s domain and place of business) with an attitude about not being promoted and not getting recognition. Jose CALMY listened to her grievances. He did not “insinuate” that he was right.

He IS right.

He went down the list and logically rebutted every single one of her grievances with facts and follow-up questions. Regarding Jose talking to other people, this was not a private conversation. There were other people there and she aired her grievances in Jose’s place of business, out in the open where anyone in the vicinity, such as Dan, Dave Rich, Keyan, Jose’s Sensei and any student walking in could hear.

People ask questions when something happens in front of them or to people they care about. There is a difference between “talking shit”, as April puts it, and talking facts about a situation. There is nothing wrong with discussing the FACTS of what happened and trying to understand how a situation unfolded…especially when it comes from out of the blue.

I would like to comment on part of Dan’s statement where he says “I do not care for any abusive language or phone calls over the weekend I chose to not answer them because I did not wish to speak to Jose nor waste my time with any of his words for they mean nothing to me nor will they ever.”  (one of many run-on sentences in his statement)

Dan is referring to the weekend when he cancelled class on Friday without giving Jose a call or heads up. He announced it in the group chat a few hours before the class was to start but did not let Jose know so Jose could find coverage.

Jose was trying to call him to get more info on the last minute cancellation and to ask if Dan could please let him know this stuff ahead of time so coverage could be provided. But Dan wouldn’t return the calls or texts.

Here’s the kicker: When I asked Dan if he let Jose know about the cancellation, he cited “did not have the best (cell) service” as the reason for not answering. And he also admitted that No, he did not let Jose know ahead of time about the cancellation. So between here and Colorado AND over 4 days, he did not have service to let Jose know about the cancellation or touch base? [Screenshot available of this text message exchange with Dan]

And Jose has never been verbally abusive to him, so why would he assume Jose was calling to be abusive?  

I ask anyone reading this: If you were to no call/ no show at your job, how would your manager react? Let’s take it a step further: Let’s say you told one of your subordinates that you weren’t going to show up to work, but you didn’t tell your manager, what would your manager do in that scenario? Is it reasonable to assume that your manager would call you to ask what’s up? I think so.

*I also want to put this here now but will mention it again later: Jose never docked Dan’s pay if he had to miss a class.

Dan accuses Jose of talking about him in a disrespectful, unprofessional and cowardly way but what did Jose actually say? Something I respect about Jose is that he will tell you things to your face. You may not like what he has to say, but he’ll tell you to your face.

Dan mentions that he shared his response to Jose in a “public setting” (IG stories) but he blocked Jose. So…Dan was posting all these things about Jose but blocked Jose so he couldn’t see it. Jose found out because people are loyal to him and told him. It’s just funny because Dan is doing exactly what he is accusing Jose of: Talking cowardly behind his back.

Dan insinuates that Jose commanded people to not talk to Dan. That’s not true.

Jose set a boundary, as healthy people do: Everyone has free will. If you choose to go with Dan, you will not be welcome back in The War Room. If you are ok with someone telling lies about your Professor Jose and that’s who you choose to believe and follow, then we do not trust you and we do not want you around. The choice is yours.

Dan mentions that all this stuff is on camera. Pretty much everything at the school is recorded. By all means, feel free to go through the footage. We have nothing to hide, but we don’t have the time to go hunting for things that are and are not there.

Frankly though, I think the word of the people mentioned (Jose, Kodi, Anthony, Tess and her family, Dave Rich, Jose’s Sensei who was there during April Incident, myself) should be sufficient to anyone examining the (lack of) accuracy of Dan’s claims.

Some FACTS about Daniel Sandoval:

-Dan has court mandated supervised visits with his daughter in Colorado. How badly does one have to behave to have court mandated supervised visits with their child? Dan had to PAY someone and hourly rate of about $70 per hour (correct me if I’m wrong) to supervise his visits with his daughter. Jose gave Dan a raise to help cover that!

-Dan has had to miss/cancel classes to visit his daughter and Jose NEVER DOCKED HIS PAY.

-Dan has multiple baby mamas.

-Dan smokes heavy amounts of marijuana.

-Dan has been spotted driving by the school, slowing down and braking multiple times, peeking his little head out- very stalkerish behavior.

-We lost students because of Dan and his lack of discipline. Dan then goes on a rant on social media (as he seems to do a lot of late) bashing the grandparents of one of the kids. Jose still stood by him because Jose was loyal to his friend and employee.

-Jose gave Dan MULTIPLE raises throughout the years.

-When Dan first got hired into The War Room, Jose paid him MORE than what he was asking for.

-Dan has never had to pay for a gi for himself or his son. Ask Dan and Jose what kind of “perks”, if any, black belts and teachers would get at other martial arts schools they’ve been a part of and you’ll the juxtaposition of how Dan was treated vs. people in the jiu jitsu community who are of similar positions.

-Jose lent Dan my truck for a period of about two months while Dan’s car was in the shop and needing constant sporadic repairs.

-We have taken Dan out to multiple dinners for the holidays and birthdays. Jose has given him gifts such as a $700 knife.

-Dan has been GENEROUSLY compensated and taken care of at his time at The War Room. He is not a volunteer.

-Dan does not use punctuation in a way that would make his statement more comprehensible and lend more credence to what he is trying to say. This is my opinion: The way he wrote his statement sounds like the ravings of a madman (because they are, as you’ll find when all the facts and testimonies have been gathered). His statement is full of run on sentences and parts that contradict themselves. Overall, most of what he says does not make sense.

Look at Dan and Jose. Look at their character. Look at their ACTIONS as well as their words.

Look at both with a magnifying glass and a fine-tooth comb. (The magnifying glass is a slightly backhanded nod because Dan is so small, in every way possible – stature, class, skill, honor etc. but the blows sometimes have to be low to reach someone so insignificant.)

Jose’s character and reputation are rock solid.

These facts are mentioned because I want the court of public opinion to examine the source of these accusations as well as the accused. Jose did right by Dan in every way, even when Dan was in the wrong.

And it is because of this that Dan’s current actions and words are so VILE and OFFENSIVE.

Daniel Sandoval, How dare you pull this bullshit.

How fucking dare you.

The most PATHETIC part about this is that you are too much of a coward to say any of this to Jose’s face.

You will post on social media. You will send statements to everyone and their mom… but you won’t say this to Jose’s face. You’ll block him…but you’ll still talk about him.

YOU. ARE. A. COWARD.

The lowest of the low.

You are the antithesis of the Bushido code.

After all of this blows over, and it will… you will be remembered as a sad, bitter, washed-up fool who tried to take down a person and a school that took care of you. You will be remembered as a liar, a coward and a pervert (because there are things not stated here that will come to light). You will be remembered as a wannabe with shitty jiu jitsu and no champions to show for it. You will be remembered as a Judas who ate at the table and then bit the hand that fed him.

You will be remembered as “that guy who used to teach at The War Room, but then he left, took some problem people with him…and everything is even better now without them.”

You’ll be remembered as that…

…if you’re even remembered at all.

You are not even a footnote.

You are just a piece of trash that took himself out.