Two Families, Two Pets, Two Trips

Here’s one of many summaries of a despicable deed, an illustration of callousness and poor judgment, heartlessness and cruelty, by the GOP presidential frontrunner with a net worth of $220 million, Willard “Mitt” Romney. See Dogs Against Romney if you need more details. Watch this interview and you will see Romney still doesn’t get it, thinks what he did was no biggie, but he wouldn’t have done it if he had known he was breaking Massachusetts’ animal cruelty laws, and besides, it was a long time ago.

…you may not be familiar with the 1983 story where Romney crammed his five children, wife and luggage into the family station wagon for a 12-hour drive to the family cottage at Beach O’Pines from Boston to Ontario. The family dog, an Irish Setter named Seamus was placed in a dog carrier and fastened to the station wagon’s roof rack….

Now brace yourself for the ugly part of the story when one of Romney’s sons yells out the word ‘gross’ as he sees a brown watery discharge running down the back window. Poor Seamus’ bowels let loose from the extreme distress of being on top of the car roof.

So what did our potential presidential candidate do? Romney pulled into a service station, hosed down Seamus, the cage and the car, and then put Seamus back on top of the car in his crate and continued on with the journey to Ontario.

Romney’s excuse for putting Seamus on the roof was that with five kids and all their stuff, there just wasn’t room in their station wagon for the dog.

I know a little something about road trips with animals.

In 1970, my mother, father, two brothers, and I loaded into a station wagon along with a toy fox terrier and a Siamese cat and made the 2,148-mile trip to Laramie, Wyoming. It took a lot more than 12 hours, I assure you. And since we were going for 8 weeks, we too had a lot of stuff, even though we were renting a furnished house. On the way back, we rescued a kitten from a motel keeper; the mother cat had been run over. So we were traveling home with 3 kids, a dog, a cat, a kitten, and two adults.  All sentient beings shared the same pleasures and discomforts.

The next year, the only four-legged family member was Tobias, the Siamese cat, who joined the five humans in the station wagon for the 3,086-mile journey (that’s 6,172 roundtrip) to Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. This time we were renting an unfurnished trailer for two months, so even more stuff was involved — pots, pans, linens, towels, etc. The stuff went on the top of the car. The howling (and occasionally vomiting) Siamese went inside the car. That was a long time ago, too.

Summer, 1971: the author and Tobias. I believe this was taken in the Mojave desert, when we all got out to stretch our legs and let the engine cool down. If you look closely, you can see Tobias is wearing his harness.

Why did we make such onerous journeys? My father was not a $220 million mouth. He was a public school teacher, and in the sixties and early seventies the Federal government supported science education by providing institutes for high school science teachers. The teachers received a stipend, probably about what they would have earned teaching summer school. Travel and housing expenses were not included, so as a family we would have done better financially staying home. But education — for all of us (imagine being 12, living on the Stanford campus in 1971) — mattered more than money.

I’m sure the Romney boys learned a lot on their lakeside vacations at the family “cottage.” I just hope none of them has a dog or cat.

 

Can Standing Silently for 65 Seconds Constitute a Threat?

Just go read this: “You Made People Uncomfortable”.

There you will learn that although citizens can comment for three minutes at a Huntsville City Schools Board of Education meeting, if they fail to use their allotted 180 seconds, standing silently for the remainder and awaiting an answer is forbidden.

 Here’s an excerpt, but really, just click through.

Thursday night I was informed by Mr. Lankford [head of Board Security] that if I wish to speak during the Citizen’s Comments section of the board meeting, I would not be allowed to stand silently waiting for an answer. I would have to speak and then sit down. The consequences of pulling this “stunt” again would mean that I would be banned from all future board meetings. Mr. Lankford went on to inform me that I had made “everyone” feel uncomfortable and that he considered my actions as a threat. He certainly hoped that I didn’t intend to threaten others.

I wonder if the First Amendment Center  would take a stand on the legality of a School Board telling a citizen that he better be babbling for the full 180 seconds allotted to him or else sit down.

They have recently reported on a case where an appeallate court ruled against a mayor who wouldn’t let a citizen speak until he first apologized to a city employee:

. . . the appellate court agreed that the city council, by allowing “audience time,” had created a designated public forum and accordingly could not regulate speech on the basis of the speech’s content.

And this is all rather interesting reading, too, regarding speaking at public meetings.

A federal district court in California invalidated a school district bylaw that prohibited people at school board meetings from criticizing school district employees. In Leventhal v. Vista Unified School District (1997), the court wrote: “It seems clear that the Bylaw’s prohibition on criticism of District employees is a content-based regulation. … It is equally clear that the District’s concerns and interests in proscribing public commentary cannot outweigh the public’s fundamental right to engage in robust public discourse on school issues.”

 Similarly, a federal district court in Virginia struck down a school board bylaw that prohibited personal attacks during public comments at meetings. (See Bach v. School Board of the City of Virginia Beach, 2001.)

Before each citizen’s comments section at Huntsville City Schools Board meeting, a little statement is read including,

We request that no one make any disparaging remarks, comments or statements pertaining to the good name and character of any individual.

It’s a good thing that they use that phrase “we request” since it seems in light of the above that they cannot require people to be nice.

But remember, in this case there is no dispute about whether the speaker’s remarks were “disparaging.” He was threatened with being “banned from all future board meetings” for saying nothing at all for 65 seconds.

Reading of my friend’s encounter at the School Board, I couldn’t help but be reminded of this classic moment of hypocrisy:

Clinton wasn’t “interrupted” by a heckler. A 71-year-old man stood up in the aisle, said not a word, and turned his back on our Secretary of State as she talked about freedom of speech. Only when he was manhandled and dragged out by two security guards did he “interrupt” to ask, “So this is America?”.

Stay tuned.

Five Adjustments for Justice I’d Like to See

It’s been four months now since I started learning what I have about the criminal justice system in Alabama. These are the issues I want to look at more closely — someday.

1. Recognition of serious and protracted psychological suffering as comparable to serious bodily injury. Why do assault statutes deal only with bodily injury? Why does the Alabama Code (and that of other states — maybe most) continue, well into the 21st century, to be based on mind-body dualism?

2. Rethinking of the prohibition on publicly naming juvenile offenders. It’s lovely to think that after a juvenile domestic violence offender sees the inside of a courtroom he will go and sin no more and that by protecting his identity he will have a chance to put the past behind him and go onto a brilliant law-abiding future. In the meantime, the rest of us can only keep our fingers crossed.

I suggest instead that embarrassment can be a strong deterrent, and that the internet has provided an underused means of helping the rest of us keep safe. In other words, the names of violent juvenile offenders who are found delinquent or who enter consent agreements should be easily accessible on a website publicized by schools for the period of their probation or until they reach adulthood. If a guy knows all the mothers of all the girls he might want to date can check a database and see if he had ever beat up another girl, he might learn to control his anger really really quickly. Then, fine, seal the records. Start over. Give him another chance — but also give his potential victims a chance to stay clear of him while he is working on his issues.

3. Refinement of Levels of Assault Charges. When one person beats up another, these are the two most likely charges: 1. Assault in the second degree, which is a Class C felony defined as “With intent to cause serious physical injury to another person, he or she causes serious physical injury to any person.” or 2. Assault in the third degree, which is a Class A misdemeanor defined as “With intent to cause physical injury to another person, he causes physical injury to any person.” As it stands, if I punch you in the nose, it’s a third degree misdemeanor. If I bang your head repeatedly on a hard surface and cause you to lose vision in an eye (but only for a few weeks), and shake you silly, strangle you til you nearly lose consciousness, and give you a concussion, it is also a third degree misdemeanor.

4. Designation in larger counties of a specially trained Victim’s Advocate for crimes adjudicated in the juvenile system. There are so many layers of secrecy that getting consistently correct information is far too difficult.

5. More aggressive prosecution of violent juvenile offenders. VOICES for Alabama’s Children 2008 reported that in Madison County, 215 (83%) kids were locked up for non-violent crimes. This is appalling. I think as a society we would agree that a violent crime against a person is more serious than one against property, and that a violent crime against a person is more serious than one that is victimless or that hurts only the perpetrator himself. Consider too the message sent to the offender when violent crimes are not aggressively prosecuted.

 

Justice. An Offer. Why Make a Fuss?

Last things first: I’m not going to keep describing my legal journey. Now that I know that Alabama Code – Section 15-23-62: LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY REQUIRED TO PROVIDE VICTIM WITH INFORMATION CONCERNING SERVICES, COMPENSATION BENEFITS, ETC exists and that there is a  brochure on the Attorney General’s website you can download and prove to obstructors that the law does say you have these rights, that’s what you should be reading rather than my story if what you are looking for is practical advice.

Yes, the law has no teeth. Still, it is there on the books. So make a fuss.

But First, An Offer:

Should you find yourself in the horrible nightmare my daughter and I lived within for months, and if you want someone to go with you to the courthouse and say, I have a right to this and this and this — or if you have too much to deal with to go yourself — contact me. I don’t mind making a fuss. I have time and I am stubborn. I’m not kidding. If you need help, I will try and try to get it for you. Email me at magnuswagnus_1999@yahoo.com. Obviously I can’t offer you legal advice because I am not one of the anointed few (annoying, yes, but not a lawyer). But I can stand and wait and nag and write letters.

Why make a fuss?

I spent the first 30 years of my life avoiding conflict. I can tell you exactly when I changed into a person who makes a fuss: November 12, 1989, Huntsville Hospital maternity ward. I had bought into the having-a-baby-is-a-natural experience, blah blah blah to the point that I let a family practice resident talk me into letting her deliver the baby. My 10 lb, 4 oz son was born 15 days post-term by emergency C-section after a long unmedicated labor during which his heart rate dropped to 30 bpm several times. He spent a week in the special care nursery fighting meconium aspiration pneumonia.

The resident’s supervisor finally showed up to talk with me after 5 days. He told me that I should view my son’s birth and fight for his life as a “character building experience.” I said no, I would be viewing it as one poor decision after another, a completely botched and incompetent performance, and I’d be writing every board, licensing agency, division of the AMA, etc. I could find. And then I spent the next six years trying to forgive myself.

What Do You Accomplish By Making a Fuss?

I’m often asked why bother — your making a fuss isn’t going to change anything. True, it is almost certain that one person making a fuss isn’t going to change anything. I believe, however, that if no one makes a fuss, it is certain nothing will change. That almost makes a difference to me.

Maybe I make a fuss because I don’t like feeling helpless and out of control.

When I am confronted with a crisis — medical, or like this most recent one — I start researching. I feel a need to understand what is happening to me, whether I can influence it or not.

I make a fuss because of entropy. Consider this: somehow, every few days, my earbud cords tie themselves in knots. I do not do this. I have never seen it happen. But I look down, and those two strands I separated just a day or two ago are knotted up again. Not just a knot or two — lots and lots of knots.

Now, if an inanimate object can do this, consider what happens when you are dealing with people, which means you are dealing with a lot of conflicting values, egos, abilities, agendas, etc.  Can they be trusted not to tie themselves up in knots? Of course by entering the fray I may well make things worse. But at least I have a close-up view and can get a head start on untangling the messes that invariably ensue.

Should You Make a Fuss?

You could start your decision-making by asking, what is the worst thing that could happen if I make a fuss?

Now, there are some advantages to being a “retired”crone. At least I don’t have to worry about economic retaliation. Being a crone too means I’m well past worrying about whether I am liked or considered a nice person. Blogging is cool because it is instant and a little bit anonymous. The major actors of course know who I am, which is the way I want it, but others have to make an effort. If they are curious and interested enough to do so, that’s fine with me. For an anonymous medium, blogging has brought me some new and very cool friends.

For me, the decision to fuss or not is based on these questions:

• Will making a fuss hurt someone who doesn’t deserve to be hurt?
• How sure am I that things could have and should have been done differently?
• What’s done is done, but is there a good chance that what distressed me might cause someone else anguish in the future?
• Is there even a remote possibility that my making a fuss could make a positive difference and maybe someday alleviate another person’s suffering?
• And finally, most importantly, could something happen to make me regret not having made a fuss? And its corollary: what could happen that would make me regret having made a fuss?

 

Alabama Law: Buy the Few, etc. Update and Clarifications.

Tuesday, Dec. 20. I first published this Sunday. Yesterday afternoon I had a callback from the Alabama Attorney General’s Office which I had contacted via its website over the weekend. Now that is a prompt response. The woman who addressed my concerns was straightforward and took all the time I needed to discuss my questions. I regret I only have her first name; then again, when someone in government talks frankly to a member of the public then perhaps it’s better I don’t name her. I’ll call her A+, as in grade A+.

Months I searched for what I should have received no later than September 1, 2011, at 4:30 pm. I was frustrated then but am livid now.

What point is there to having laws, for example, Alabama Code – Section 15-23-62: LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY REQUIRED TO PROVIDE VICTIM WITH INFORMATION CONCERNING SERVICES, which require a law enforcement agency to perform its job when the law enforcement agency can ignore said law with impunity?

A+ answered this question quite frankly. The legislators enacted the law but gave it no teeth. There are no sanctions for not following it.

This confirmed what I suspected and I said as much to her. At some point the Alabama legislature was getting static from victims’ advocacy groups about the omission in the law of any statement of victims’ rights. So their response was to throw them a bone. There. Here’s a law. But there’s no meat on that bone. A+ said that about summed up the present situation and that the matter would have to be taken up by the legislature if anything were to change.

Personally, I think this is sleazy and contemptible behavior by lawmakers.

A+ went on to say that when Alabama Code – Section 15-23-62 was first enacted, the AG’s office printed up a lot of brochures and sent them out with patrol cars and had them available at the DA’s offices. Then gradually each county went its own way with how actively they worked this law. There were no sanctions for not making an effort.

What recourse do I as a citizen have to make an unspecified law enforcement agency comply with Alabama Code – Section 15-23-62? The answer is not many. I can complain, but the law is toothless, remember.

And which law enforcement agency was responsible here? Could it be that the wording is deliberately vague so that ultimately the city police can say, I thought that was the DA’s job and the DA can say, no that’s the police’s?

The buck stops with Robert Broussard, Madison County District Attorney, in my opinion, based on the first paragraph on the Office of the DA’s webpage:

The District Attorney of the 23rd Judicial Circuit is the Chief Law Enforcement Official in Madison County who represents the people of the State of Alabama in prosecuting all felony and some misdemeanor criminal cases which occur within Madison County.

My reasoning is that the Chief Law Enforcement Official is responsible for the compliance of all law enforcement agencies in Madison County with Alabama Code – Section 15-23-62. This A+ largely confirmed in the sense that she would expect his website to provide links at least to the information Alabama Code – Section 15-23-62 lists.

Please see previous post update for more on this.

Surely Broussard is responsible for compliance with Alabama Code – Section 15-23-63: PROSECUTING ATTORNEY REQUIRED TO NOTIFY VICTIM OF CHARGES AND PROCEEDINGS; REQUEST FOR NOTICE. See previous post update.

But what recourse do I have when he doesn’t do his job? Shall I buy the services of a lawyer to force a man my taxes pay to do what I’ve already paid him to do?

And then there’s:

The Question that Has No Answer, or Can I Name My Daughter’s Attacker?

All I want to do is obey the law. My reading comprehension skills are pretty good, so why can’t I determine if I am gagged by this law: ALABAMA JUVENILE CODE REVISION, H.B. 28, H.B. 29, S.B. 33, S.B. 34, 2008 Legislative Session §12-15-134 [p. 23] which begins “the law enforcement records and files with respect to the child shall not be open to public inspection nor their contents disclosed to the public” and ends [emphases added]:

(f) Except as provided in this section, whoever directly or indirectly discloses or makes use of or knowingly permits the use of information described in this section that identifies a child, or the family of a child, who is or was under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, upon conviction thereof, shall be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court.

The “information described” includes “Juvenile legal files” (including formal documents such as petitions, notices, motions, legal memoranda, orders, and decrees) and “social records.” Those who can view and copy these are officers of the court, law enforcement professionals, the parent, and if approved, the principal of the defendant’s school. What victims are entitled to is less clear: “Law enforcement records may be viewed by victims during the investigation of a crime at the discretion of the investigating officer.”

Let’s try to puzzle this out:

• On the one hand, my information is not derived from court records.
• On the other hand, the matter is under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court (the case is closed, but the boy is on probation).
• “a child. . . ,who is or was under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court”: does this “was” mean when I’m in my 80′s and he is in his 40′s I still can’t name him? Or is the gag order lifted when he ceases to be a child? Is that at 18, 19, 21?
• Note too that if I were to name him but shouldn’t, my crime would be in the same category as his vicious beating of my daughter — a Class A misdemeanor, although any “damage” he might suffer would be psychological — and a victim’s psychological damage doesn’t matter.
• By the way, do you see any mention of keeping the name of the victim, the court records relating to her, confidential? I don’t.

Where do laws come from? Lawyers write them. Who pays their salaries while they are writing these laws? You and I. Can we ask these writers to clarify what we paid for them to write? No. But we can pay a lawyer to try to figure out the meaning of what we’ve already paid a lawyer to write.

You can’t find out who specifically is responsible for the ambiguities, omissions, and general muddle of ALABAMA JUVENILE CODE REVISION, H.B. 28, H.B. 29, S.B. 33, S.B. 34, 2008 Legislative Session §12-15-134 since these things are written by committee, thus allowing each member deniability.

Finally,

Why is it that whenever you google an elected official in Alabama the first page yields amazing things?

One of those responsible for the document is William Cooper Thompson, Chief Judge of the Court of the Judiciary about whom Legal Schnauzer has plenty to say.

Another is County District Judge Terri Willingham, Alabama Civil Appeals Court, who paid a special visit to the Council of Conservative Citizens during her 2008 campaign. I won’t even provide you a direct link to this group, so foul is it.

This is what Blue Gal wrote:

I almost hate to post this, but this is the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “analysis” of the group: ‘The organization routinely denigrated blacks as “genetically inferior,” complained about “Jewish power brokers,” called homosexuals “perverted sodomites,” and accused immigrants of turning America into a “slimy brown mass of glop.”‘

When Thomas was questioned about her interest in these constituents, she “declined to repudiate [the CCC's] beliefs because she said she doesn’t know what they believe in.”

Doc’s Political Parlor comment? “She is a judge who cannot find enough information about a public group to evaluate its positions?”

I believe I have had enough. It isn’t going to ever make sense, it is?

Navigating the Juvenile Justice System. Things Should Have Gone Differently From the Start. Updated.

As I just mentioned in my update to the post above this one (prior in order, subsequent in time), Monday afternoon I had a callback from the Alabama Attorney General’s Office which I had contacted via its website over the weekend. The woman I spoke with did a good job of clarifying the situation.

I knew I should have received more paperwork– some guidelines, a brochure — something more than a 4″ by 4″ piece of paper.

Grand total of paperwork.

And now I know I was right. A brochure in fact does exist.

There’s a law that says I should have had the information I have spent hours seeking online 72 hours after this whole ordeal began:

Alabama Code – Section 15-23-62: LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY REQUIRED TO PROVIDE VICTIM WITH INFORMATION CONCERNING SERVICES, COMPENSATION BENEFITS, ETC

Within 72 hours, unless the victim is unavailable or incapacitated as a result of the crime, after the initial contact between a victim of a reported crime and the law enforcement agency either responding to the report of the crime of the victim or another person, or having responsibility for investigating the crime, the law enforcement agency shall provide to the victim in a manner and form designed and produced for the appropriate governmental agency or office, the following information:

1. The availability of emergency and crisis services.
2.  The availability of victims’ compensation benefits and the name, address, and telephone number of the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission.
3.  The name of the law enforcement officer and telephone number of the law enforcement agency with the following statement attached: “If within 60 days you are not notified of an arrest in your case, you may call the telephone number of the law enforcement agency for the status of the case.”
4.  The procedural steps involved in a criminal prosecution.
5.  The rights authorized by the Alabama Constitution on rights of victims, including a form to invoke these rights.
6.  The existence and eligibility requirements of restitution and compensation pursuant to Section 15-18-65 et seq. and Section 15-23-1 et seq.
7.  A recommended procedure if the victim is subjected to threats or intimidation.
8.  The name and telephone number of the office of the prosecuting attorney to contact for further information.

Let’s look at my success and, more importantly, failure in gaining this info on my own:

1. These are listed on the back of the 4″ by 4″ piece of paper the Huntsville Police Department officer provided with the case number.
2. I received this several weeks later when I paid my first visit to the Courthouse and met with Nita Batt.
3. Never received. Yes and no. The officer’s name and number are on that 4″ square, but there is nothing about what to do if 60 days pass without a response.
4. Never received.
5. Never received.
6. See posts for December 4, 5, 6. By the way, I did receive a follow-up call on progress made ny the ADA yesterday.
   
7. Never received in writing.
8. Received upon my asking several weeks into the ordeal.

Numbers 4 and 5 are what I most missed.

After I talked to the woman in the Attorney General’s Office, I revisited the Madison County DA’s website. I’ve concluded I fell through the cracks.

I had two things working against me.

First, my daughter’s was a juvenile case, juvenile cases proceed differently, and apparently the DA’s office doesn’t see that many victims (or their representatives, i.e. parents) since 83% of those they find in need of spending time in the d-home are non-violent offenders. This is very troubling, as I’ve said before.

Secondly, her assault was to me a major violent crime — but not by their standards. According to the DA’s page on Victim’s Assistance Officers (VSO),

A VSO is assigned to each victim or their survivor in the following type violent crimes: Felony Assaults (physical or sexual), Murder, Robberies, Intimidating a Witness, Burglary in the 1^st degree, and Interference with Custody.

At first the offense was treated as a 3rd degree domestic violence misdemeanor, then as a felony assault, and finally back to a misdemeanor. So when the case began, my daughter and I didn’t qualify under the Madison County DA’s Office’s criteria for Victim’s Assistance, and so what I did get, I got only because I sought answers. Notice, however, that there is nothing in Alabama Code – Section 15-23-62 that suggests my daughter wouldn’t be entitled to victim’s services.

The problem goes back to defining the charge (see previous post).

◊◊◊

I’ve complained and complained about poor communication from the Office of the District Attorney. I made multiple visits to the Courthouse. Never once did I hear or see anything about this:

Alabama Code – Section 15-23-63: PROSECUTING ATTORNEY REQUIRED TO NOTIFY VICTIM OF CHARGES AND PROCEEDINGS; REQUEST FOR NOTICE

(a) Upon written request of the victim, the prosecuting attorney shall notify the victim of all charges filed against the defendant, criminal proceedings, except initial appearances, as soon as practicable, including any changes that may occur.

 

(b) The victim shall provide to and maintain with the office of the prosecuting attorney a request for notice on a form provided by the agency. The form shall include the telephone number and address of the victim. If the victim fails to keep this information current, his or her request for notice shall be considered withdrawn and void. Except as otherwise provided, all notices provided to a victim pursuant to this article shall be on forms developed and produced for the appropriate government agency or office.

This one is a puzzler. It seems (a) and (b) are reversed. But maybe they are explained in “the procedural steps involved in a criminal prosecution” and “the rights authorized by the Alabama Constitution on rights of victims, including a form to invoke these rights” — the materials I should have, but did not, receive with 72 hours of filing a police report.

This is irrelevant for my case since it pertains to appeals and a consent agreement can’t be appealed. It would be really helpful if the lawmakers ran their writing by an editor once in a while, one who could point out to them that the public can only read the words on the page or screen — and not their minds. There is, in other words, no mention here of appeals. All who had a hand in writing it know that is what it is about, but the rest of us have no way of knowing that.

So who neglected to follow these laws?

I’ve written the Alabama Attorney General’s Office to find out.

I wonder if I’ll hear back. Sure did. Thanks!

Navigating the Juvenile Justice System, cont’d. Into the Courts.

When I signed the petition against He Who Must Not Be Named on August 31, 2011, the charge was domestic violence — 3rd degree.

Here’s the Alabama definition:

Section 13A-6-132 – Domestic violence – Third degree.

(a) A person commits domestic violence in the third degree if the person commits the crime of assault in the third degree pursuant to Section 13A-6-22; . . .and the victim is a current or former spouse, parent, child, any person with whom the defendant has a child in common, a present or former household member, or a person who has or had a dating or engagement relationship with the defendant.

So basically, domestic violence — third degree is the same as assault–3rd degree except that the defendant had some kind of domestic relationship with the victim, including  “a dating or engagement relationship.”

What then is assault–3rd degree?

Section 13A-6-22 – Assault in the third degree. (1) With intent to cause physical injury to another person, he causes physical injury to any person; or (2) He recklessly causes physical injury to another person; . . .(b) Assault in the third degree is a Class A misdemeanor.

Class A misdemeanors  are the most serious of 3 levels of misdemeanors, with jail time of up to one year possible. Other examples (keep these in mind) are  desecration of venerated objects. and  disrupting a funeral or memorial service.

After the petition was filed but before the arraignment, my daughter’s medical problems escalated. She was diagnosed with migraines linked to post-concussive syndrome. A opthamalogist concluded that she had a bruised optic nerve as a result of blunt force trauma. He could not predict whether her eye would improve or not, but said that if it did, most improvement will take place in the first six months. Her vision is not likely to ever be the same as it was pre-injury, however.

This was a major blow, as you can imagine. I told Cindy Conrad at the Neeves Center about it; I wanted this doctor’s report added to the file. She said she thought the Office of the District Attorney should be informed because if there is  serious physical injury, the charge changes from misdemeanor-3rd to assault 2nd degree. This is the difference relevant to our case:

Section 13A-6-21 - Assault in the second degree. (1) With intent to cause serious physical injury to another person, he or she causes serious physical injury to any person. . . . Assault in the second degree is a Class C felony.

A Class C felony may result in imprisonment for not more than 10 years or less than 1 year and 1 day.

Obviously, the stakes are a lot higher. This means that the State’s burden of proof is tougher.

I submitted medical documentation regarding both the ophthalmological damage and post-concussive syndrome. It wasn’t until my first conversation with the Assistant District Attorney just two full working days before the trial that I learned that the medical records were not admissible. I figured out this was because the defendant has a right to cross-examine the prosecutor’s witness, and pieces of paper can’t be cross-examined. The doctors would have had to have been subpoenaed. They weren’t. No one was.

Without medical testimony, there was no way a charge of 2nd degree assault was going to stick. The charge reverted to 3rd degree Domestic Violence.

Before leaving this, let me draw your attention to these phrases from the definitions of 3rd degree and 2nd degree assault, emphasis added:

“He recklessly causes physical injury to another person” and “he or she causes serious physical injury to any person.”

Psychological damage doesn’t count.

Now, consider these laws and remember that desecration of venerated objects. and  disrupting a funeral or memorial service are also class A misdemeanors.

Section 13A-11-163 - Defamation. Any person who writes, prints or speaks of and concerning any woman, falsely imputing to her a want of chastity. . . punished by fine not exceeding $500.00 and imprisonment in the county jail, or sentenced to hard labor for the county, not exceeding six months, one or both, at the discretion of the jury.

Section 13A-11-13 - Abuse of corpse. (a) A person commits the crime of abuse of a corpse if, except as otherwise authorized by law, he knowingly treats a human corpse in a way that would outrage ordinary family sensibilities. . . . Abuse of a corpse is a Class C felony [same as 2nd assault!].

What kind of physical injury is caused by saying a woman isn’t chaste? None. Would her psychological suffering be comparable to that of a woman beaten viciously by someone who just hours before had been kissing her? Doubt it.

What kind of physical injury is suffered by an abused corpse? Corpses are past suffering, right? So the law against Abuse of Corpse must be intended to spare the living psychological damage.

No physical injury to a person results from desecration of venerated objects or disrupting a funeral, either. Psychological injury might, but you’d have a hard time convincing me it would be as significant and long-lasting as that suffered by victims of assault.

Navigating the Juvenile Justice System, cont’d. Of Petitions and Parole Officers at the D-Home.

I dreaded going down to the Robert Neeves Center, or D [detention]-Home. I can’t watch prison movies. Because of the actors (Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman) I made an exception for The Shawshank Redemption and regretted it. Even A Cry in the Dark freaked me out. I still have nightmares because of Lina Wertmüller’s 1975 Seven Beauties.  But it needed to be done.

I had to go to the D-Home to sign a juvenile delinquency petition, which stated the allegations against my daughter’s attacker (I signed and not her because she is a minor). This is the first step after filling out the police report in seeking to hold a juvenile accountable for his criminal actions.

The personnel who receive the petitions are probation or intake officers.

Already I was confused. First, I assumed probation officers dealt with people who had been found guilty of a crime. Not so in the juvenile system.  And I assumed that the D-Home was where youth found guilty of serious offenses ended up. Yes — and no.

As I understand it, probation officers are at once charged with:

• trying to keep youthful offenders out of the criminal courts and with
• starting the process that gets them in the courts when they can’t keep them out and then with
• dealing with those who are found delinquent (guilty) or enter consent agreements.

I was told that next a letter would be sent to He Who Must Not Be Named and his parents telling them they had to come down to the D-Home within a certain period and address the allegations.

If he admitted he had done what the petition said, if he had no priors (and no, I couldn’t be told whether he did or not), and if he were cooperative, then since the charge (at the time) was third degree domestic violence [battery], diversion was likely.

Diversion means that the case is informally handled in the sense that it is kept out of the courts. Some combination of probation, counseling, curfews, or community service were possible outcomes.

This is what I expected to happen. After all, two days after my daughter’s injuries were seen by her school’s principal, counselor, a Huntsville Police Department officer, and a teacher, the counselor told me that the kid, the second time he questioned him, admitted “it.” (Much later on November 10, 2011, I asked this counselor if I remembered our conversation correctly. He affirmed I did.)

My reasoning was, how could the kid confess at school and turn around and deny the allegations to the intake or probation officer?

My daughter and I asked the officer assigned if we would have any input into this. At the time it was very important to her that he receive counseling. She also wanted to know if there would be an opportunity for her in a safe setting to convey to him how his actions had affected her and to ask for him to explain why he did what he did.

Our first stunner was learning that if he accepted a diversion then we would not know any more about the case because of confidentiality rules. We were flabbergasted. Daughter talked to the officer, I talked to the officer, the officer began to get a little impatient. We were so stunned when we hung up that we drove down to the Huntsville City Police’s headquarters to learn if this were true. It was.

Our second surprise was that He Who Must Not be Named denied the allegations. His arraignment was set for September 28, 2011, about two weeks away. That is when he would enter a formal plea.

Several important things happened in the next two weeks. I started some research and read the Alabama’s Juvenile Probation Officers’ Resource Manual Best Practice Guide. There I found numerous mentions of keeping the victim informed, although “Victim-Related Strategies” starts deep into the document, page 100  [emphasis added]:

Juvenile probation officers should bear in mind that victims are entitled to full participation in the juvenile justice process.

…Treating crime victims fairly requires affirmative measures that not only allow but also encourage and assist victim participation. In Alabama, representation of victims is a function of the executive branch and not the juvenile probation office. . . .

At the direction of juvenile courts, juvenile probation offices in conjunction with district attorneys’ offices should have clearly defined policies and procedures that delineate responsibility and accountability for the implementation, distribution, collection of restitution, and any other victim services.

So what gives? Why did I feel shut out of the process? I determined to talk with the boss down at Neeves, and while I didn’t get the answers I wanted, I began to understand why I wouldn’t.

Daughter and I have become great fans of Cindy Conrad, Intake Supervisor at Madison County Juvenile Court. She tells the truth. She is prompt in responding to questions, courteous, supportive,  pro-active, efficient, intelligent, and compassionate.

I don’t usually think a physical description appropriate when discussing someone’s work, but I’m making an exception here. Ms. Conrad is petite. I think just seeing her helped my daughter  When a small woman beaten by a small man lives in a world populated by some very big men indeed, she is going to worry. Ms. Conrad works with big and strong males and females all day, and she is small, but the way she carries herself means you quickly forget that. It’s good to be reminded that strength can be linked to more than size.

I liked Ms. Conrad immediately when she said that what the State seemingly advocates in its Best Practice Guide and how the system presently functions don’t always have anything in common. I wish I could remember how she put it; the impression I got is that the title of the manual should be Alabama’s Juvenile Probation Officers’ Resource Manual [In the] Best [of All Possible Worlds] Practice Guide.

Shelve it under fiction.

There’s more to cover here, but this post is getting too long. Before I leave for the day, I have one more point about the D-Home. A few posts back, I noted that 83% of kids in custody in Madison County committed non-violent offenses.

So, you may ask, how can I say anything good about the D-home?

This is what you need to remember: It is the Office of the District Attorney and the judges who hear juvenile cases who decide who is in the D-home.

It isn’t the D-home staff. They can do all in their power to deliver a strong case against a violent offender to the Office of the DA. If his Office decides domestic violence and other violent cases aren’t as important as non-violent offenses and don’t seek convictions, the D-home ends up through no fault of its own with 83% non-violent offenders.

Bureaucratic Opacity, cont’d. A Better Day with the ADA. Could This Be a Win-Win for Us?

This morning Daughter and I went to the Madison County District Attorney’s Office to  have a little talk with Assistant District Attorney Josh Ballinger, primarily about the restitution process.

Daughter came along because she wanted  finally to meet him, and I wanted him to see just how tiny she is. He Who Must Not Be Named So That His Future Won’t Be Blighted is smaller than most of his peers because he is Asian-American. Still, he outweighs Daughter by 30 or 40 pounds, all muscle, and he knows how to fight. I noticed when he came to court that he was dressed in generously-sized clothing for his frame, giving him the appearance not of a generously sized person but of one so small as to be lost in his conservative trousers and button-down shirt.

The ADA, Daughter, the ever-supportive Nita Batt, and I went over the chronology of events since August 28th, particularly the medical tests, treatments and diagnoses pertaining to the effect of blunt force trauma to the head, for example, post-concussive syndrome and optic nerve contusion, and what our insurance would and would not (at least so far — more battles loom) cover, and so on.

Then we learned a little more about how consent decrees differ from guilty pleas. Remember, the un-nameable one negotiated a consent decree, meaning, as best I understand it, that he agreed to follow the directives of the Court (“terms and conditions”) but didn’t admit guilt. It’s more serious than an “informal adjustment,” which I believe is the same as a “diversion,” which keeps the case out of the courts altogether, but less serious and without the bite of a trial verdict.

This is how the State of Alabama defines a consent decree (I’ve also heard it called consent agreement) [emphasis added]:

WHAT IS A CONSENT DECREE?
At any time after the filing of a petition in a delinquency or child in need of supervision case, and before the entry of an order adjudicating the child delinquent or a CHINS, the juvenile court may suspend proceedings and allow the child, to be supervised under certain conditions known as a consent decree. The consent decree is an agreement between the juvenile, the parents or custodian, and the judge which may be entered into after the child and parents (or custodians) have been advised of their rights. The proceedings of the court are suspended, and the juvenile is placed on probation for a period of six months under terms and conditions agreed upon by all parties.

If the juvenile fails to abide by the terms and conditions of the consent decree, the petition will be reinstated and the case will proceed to adjudication.

If a consent decree is not entered into by all the parties, including the child, the juvenile case will be set for an adjudicatory hearing.

So he has agreed to pay restitution, but he hasn’t been ordered to do so. He sort of is and sort of isn’t on probation. If he were really on probation, there would be what I’ll call an “instant karma” effect: violate probation and find yourself in the D-Home. Not quite the same with the consent decree.

Next on the agenda is that the ADA presents my claims, receipts, etc. to the Judge who approves all, some part or none of the batch, and then to He Who Must Not Be Named’s attorney.

If He Who etc. doesn’t pay up, doesn’t comply with the terms and conditions of his consent decree, then we all go back to court, and the case is tried, or in juvenile parlance, it returns to the courts for “adjudication.”

It sounds like Daughter and I might just have a win-win here for a change. One of two things will happen:

• He’ll pay up, and that should hurt a little bit.
• Or he won’t. Then we start all over again. A hearing, at last (it isn’t double jeopardy because the case was never adjudicated or tried). 

This would be fine with me. We’d get our day in court. This time, I think the ADA would be ready to go. I think he gets it now. I can’t see how he could lose.

And He Who Must Not Be Named would lose before a judge whom he had defied by not complying with the terms and conditions of the consent decree. Judges have a lot of discretion when it comes to punishment or rehabilitation, whatever.

Yes, this could work out quite nicely after all.

Bureacratic Opacity. Again. Another Trip to the Courthouse. Update Updated.

Update: Tuesday morning.

I paid another early visit to the Courthouse, and this time I met with ADA Ballinger’s secretary. I’ve met with her before, so when she said her boss would be getting back to me, I decided I could go home. Once home,

• I received an email from Chief Deputy DA Sandlin!
• I received a call from ADA Ballinger who will be meeting with me Wednesday morning!

Yea! See? It doesn’t take all that much to make me happy.

Update: Monday Afternoon:

• Did I receive a callback from Ballinger? NO.
• Did I receive a callback from Sandlin? NO.
• Did I receive a response to an email I sent Ballinger around 1 pm with a list of expenses for which I believe I am due restitution? NO.
• Did I receive a response to my letter to Sherrod? NO.

Guess where I’ll be at 8:00 tomorrow morning. . . and this time I’m staying until I get some answers.  I’ve got some Occupying to do.

Monday Morning:

Damn. I forgot my little pad and pencil for taking names. You might not be surprised that the Jack Lemmon/Sandy Dennis comedy The Out-of -Towners is one of my all time favorite movies. Lemmon’s character George acquires a bushel of names of people he intends to have a little talk with once the immediate crisis of negotiating New York City during a general strike the eve before an important interview is over. The Out-of -Towners (1970) trailer

I arrived a little past 8 this morning at the Madison County (AL) Courthouse. First stop: 8th floor, Judge Sherrod’s recording clerk in her courtroom to hand deliver my letter so that I can be sure it doesn’t go astray. I asked the clerk about the restitution process, and she said to go to Family Court on the 2nd floor.

Family Court opens at 8:30. I talked to a young lady behind the counter who couldn’t seem to get her head around my question and would duck in repeatedly to ask her boss the answer. Finally the boss herself came out and told me I needed to talk to the Office of Robert L. Broussard, Madison County’s District Attorney. She didn’t seem surprised I hadn’t a clue what to do. Back to the fourth floor.

ADA Josh Ballinger wasn’t in yet, so I talked to a woman substituting for his secretary who said no, she could give me no instructions, no she could give me no forms, no she couldn’t tell me what expenses I could claim, and no, she didn’t know how medical information was kept private from He Whose Delicate Feelings and Prospects for a Bright Future Must Be Protected By Not Being Named (Maybe).

Bur Mr. Ballinger, she was sure, would call me as soon as he could. I scowled and told her I had been very disappointed and disheartened by his handling of the case.

She said, you do know if ever you have a complaint about one of our attorneys you should talk to Mark Sandlin. I said I did not know this. Website says he is Chief Deputy DA. She said she’d have him call me.

When I got home, I found that a phone message that my email to the Restitution Recovery Unit had been forwarded to Victim’s Services. Gail Campbell had called me first thing this morning, but, alas, her division deals with the Alabama Crime Victim’s Fund, which I wrote about before. I told her I wanted restitution from He Who, etc. I also told her if she and Nita Batt ran the place things would improve greatly.

So now it is 9:40, and I’m waiting for the phone to ring.