So, acting on Evan‘s advice, I decided to give the County Attorney’s office a call and express my concerns about whatever risk testifying against the late, great garage invader might evince, young G.I. being a convicted felon, a member of a violent criminal gang, and charged with armed robbery, kidnapping, and aggravated assault.
Called the number of the Gang Bureau, given on Sheriff Joe’s subpoena. The woman who answered the phone knew all about G.I. Remarked she: “He’s…special.”
Yeah. I’ll bet he is.
She patched me through to the prosecutor in charge of harrying young G.I. He was extremely nice and helpful. First off, he said he thought the charges they were preferring that entailed the garage invasion caper were so minor that G.I. and his pals would hardly notice them. Second, he gave me his phone number and his cell number (!!!), with instructions to call him if anything even vaguely suspicious or alarming happened, and said to call the police if the anyone showed up on the property. However, he said, G.I. is still in custody and will be until the trial. So, since it’s unlikely he memorized my address in his rush to escape the cops or after his captors had beaned him, his co-conspirators are not likely to show up here with any threats.
Then I mentioned, as an afterthought, that if I had to sit around a courtroom for several days, it would mean I would lose a week’s salary—explained that one class meeting for an adjunct section that meets twice a week represents half a week’s pay. Said he: “Oh, hadn’t you heard? The trial has been postponed until January.”
Hallelujah, brother!
By January, of course, I’ll no longer be standing in front of classrooms full of freshmen, and so that moots the whole paycheck problem. Editorial work I can do anyplace where I can sit down and turn on a computer. So, I’m pretty relieved about that.
Mr. County Prosecutor continued: They’re pretty sure he’s going to accept a plea agreement before the trial is scheduled. He said one of his pals has already done so, and they think he will, too. I pointed out that he’s already got at least one felony conviction, plus if he was convicted on the charge of possession of a firearm by a felon, he has two. Thus copping a plea would put him in jail for at least 25 years, and very probably for the rest of his life. I said if I were in that position I wouldn’t be interested in confessing to anything, and anyone who might testify against me most definitely would hear from my colleagues. He said there was something to that, except they have him dead to rights on the pawn shop heist.
So, it doesn’t look like there’s much to worry about where that poor schmuck is concerned.
What a shame. He’s a handsome man, except for the pinpoint irises and the gang tat on the neck. Think of it: once he was somebody’s cute little baby. What do you suppose happens to a person that he turns out to be an armed robber and all-around sh!thead?
Oh well.
This little reminder caused me to reconsider sticking the door screamers on the new Arcadia doors. Damn, but I don’t want to! They look so nice…who needs to junk up a $1,500 door with a stupid plastic alarm?
On the other hand, that one did go off the time the guy tried to get in the westside door. He must have been annoyed. 😀
No question, too, that the sliding doors and windows, especially in back, are the most vulnerable entries to the house. They really should have noisemakers on them. {sigh} That’ll make for a couple of hours of dorking around—have to scrape off the extremely stubborn stickum from the alarms that were removed from the old doors. First, though, I’ve gotta grade some stoont papers.
And so, to work…
I love when public servants do their jobs so well and are so incredibly helpful! Glad to know this one looks like it’s going to be less of an event for you than it could have been.
So glad that situation has a better outlook for you now!
As to your comment about what happens in a person’s life to create this sort of future, that’s such a good question and one that I’m personally thinking about now. My first cousin has been missing for 48 hours. He’s presumed dead, murdered, actually. He fell into a life of drug abuse that ended in meth and needles. I’m not sure what happened to cause that situation for him. His parents didn’t discipline him enough, to be sure, but he didn’t have a bad family life; he was very supported in every way, star athlete, etc. And yet, starting in high school he made one poor decision after another and has likely paid the ultimate price for it.
Just like this my cousin’s family, this perp probably has many family members right now shaking their heads and saying “Well…it’s not as though we didn’t expect this would happen one day.” So sad, really.
That’s a terrible thing. Poor man. One wonders, when person who seems to have decent enough advantages in life goes off the cliff like that, if he might have psychological issues that could be helped if we just had decent healthcare that covers psychological care. We all end up paying the price for crime and loss that might have been prevented if we had adequate services for the mentally ill.
Funny, I think you need to distiguish between people who are actually mentally ill and those who deliberately made bad decisions time after time through their adolescence and young adult life, even when they have families who model better behaviour.
It’s so easy to Monday morning quarterback (“his parents should have disciplined him more”) after the fact. But it’s meaningless as there isn’t a person alive who had perfect parents who chose exactly the right path for that personality.
We all choose our own way in life, to a very large degree.
@ E. Murphy: Possibly so. However, to my mind the deliberate choice of self-destructive behaviors is a form of suicidal behavior. Unless you’re terminally or excruciatingly ill, suicide is inherently a manifestation of mental illness.
So, I think an argument can be made that a pattern of consistent, repeating choices of self-destructive behavior indicates mental illness. Disciplining a child does not address mental illness, and neither does modeling more healthy behavior. The best shot we have at addressing mental illness is science-based mental health treatment, and even that is pretty iffy.
If “consistent repeating choices of self-destructive behaviour indicates mental illness”, then there is a HUGE swath of population in this country that needs “science-based mental health treatment.”
Yup! That’s no doubt true.
Back when we lived in the caves and hunted on the veldt, they didn’t last long. Now that we’re civilized, we’re kinda stuck with figuring out how to take care of them.
They didn’t tell you the trial was moved?! Were you supposed to figure that out after you already got off work and showed up at the courthouse? Ridiculous. Good thing you called.
The guy said the notice was sent out the day before I spoke to him, so it wouldn’t have had time to reach me. But it still hasn’t: they have my address wrong and are sending these things to my demented neighbor’s house. The house number is the same as mine and the street name is the same — the only different is mine is, shall we say, XXX north Y Street and his is XXX North Y <Avenue. Among the guy’s oddities: he refuses to forward mail sent to the wrong address — a couple of years ago Macy’s sicced a collection agency on me after this clown threw out six months’ worth of statements for a $20 purchase I’d forgotten about.
So he may be getting some of this paperwork.