Friday, June 3, 2016
Jack
Jason's sentencing: 9AM docket.
The Honorable Judge, DA Kelly Thatcher, us, and a full courtroom of spectators.
Because of prior convictions, Jason is not probation eligible. Because of prior convictions he was rejected for Community Corrections (halfway house) and PEER 1 (intense prison-hospital administered drug treatment program).
He is to be sentenced on his fifth felony conviction for menacing with a deadly weapon by threatening to cut off his friend's head with an ax. The only upside is that under the terms of the plea, the maximum prison sentence is five years followed by two years parole. With prior convictions for kidnapping, burglary, etc., it is highly likely he gets the maximum sentence.
Worked past midnight. Back up at 5AM. Came up with a secret plan.
Shower, dress, race to Court.
Jason is in the parking lot surrounded by friends and family, about 20. He's 6' 4", 250 pounds, with prison tats and wearing a blue blazer I gave him. He is crying. We usher him and his peeps into the courthouse and into the courtroom. They are all hushed, eyes following me, hoping for things to go well, afraid they will not.
The victim's wife is there, she is so nervous to speak to the Court, she is shaking. Actually shivering. She tells me the Marshall's daughter called, she can't make it to Court. F! F! F! In the hallway, I use some techniques to calm the wife. She looks less likely to puke. She gives me a sample of her statement. A stomach flutter and a hunch tell me we still have a shot. We go back into the courtroom...
[Sorry, getting Friday beer]
[Back to Jason] The Courtroom is filled. Jason and his fiancee and others are asking me last minute questions that are the kind of desperate, nervous, irrational things people ask just before they are forced to jump out of a plane, "Are you sure this is the day we have to do this?"
The Judge enters, "All Rise." She calls our case. Jason and I approach the podium and begin.
I tell Jason's story. Most of it I outlined from what I wrote to you, and added details.
Jason was born in Arizona because his parents were out-running warrants in Colorado. They returned to Colorado when they had to avoid warrants in Arizona. I described the beatings, strangling, broken furniture, and blood. The attempted knifing by Dad. Prison and escape. Mom, heroin, prostitution, more brutality. The biker kidnapping, and Russian roulette. Intervention after the school discovers his sister was beat with a 2x4. Brother and sister separated. Jason runs and runs, and runs. Reuniting with his Dad. The tough shed, and more beatings. Behind me, I can hear the gallery. They are rising, falling, and gasping on the waves of abuse. Some are crying. Lawyers on other cases are wiping their eyes. Bailiffs' and Deputies' lips are pressed tight by the facts. The room is ours, but the emotion must be directed to save Jason.
I acknowledge Jason's five felonies straight up. I go on to say the felony convictions are the most important facts to assess in deciding an appropriate sentence for Jason and to preserve the safety of the community. We march through the felonies.
1. Passing out on Meth.
2. Falling through the roof of a furniture store on Meth.
3. Unarmed car jack/kidnap on Meth.
4. Beating a gas pump with a fire extinguisher on Meth.
5. Proclaiming that all rocks are filled with gold, and telling his best friend, "I'm going to fucking cut your head off, if you don't believe in me. You are the High Priest!" Psychotic gibberish on Meth.
The recent drug treatment that Jason has volunteered for is listed, individual therapy 1-2 times per week, Alcoholics Anonymous 3 times per week, EMDR for PTSD each week, 25 pre-Trial supervision meetings without an absence, 7 months of ankle monitor without a misstep, and 7 months of clean drug tests...
Ceci
Excellent stuff. All VERY interesting. I BET you had that room.
Jack
Thanks.
Then I described how I failed to get Jason qualified for his goal, a bed in the PEER 1 treatment program. How the vote was 8 to 7, just one vote short. That if I knew the internal policies and politics, I would have provided Jason's facts to the DA and Public Defender Board members to advocate for him. I failed my client. I failed him.
I acknowledge that Jason is going to prison, "He is going to prison today". But we have a special duty when sentencing a five-time felon to first protect the community. Placing Jason in prison would eventually lead to his release in no better condition, maybe worse, than his prior prison releases. And the pattern will continue.
Here's where we proposed something new and untried. It hit me the night before. Had never seen it. Not sure it would even work. I told the Court that we should sentence Jason to prison, but that under Rule 35(b) of the Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Court should allow me to file a motion within 120 days to reconsider Jason's sentence solely to be re-screened for PEER 1 treatment.
The Judge was curious and asked how it would work. I said we had talked to the Screening Coordinator. She said, if the Court ordered a screening as part of a NEW sentence, they would screen Jason again. And this time I would know how to intervene and play the game.
The Judge was intrigued. She asked Jason if he was really interested in PEER 1, the most difficult treatment program in the system. Jason, "Absolutely!" She warned Jason, that in order to give him enough time to complete PEER 1, the Court would have to impose a longer prison sentence than the Court might be inclined to give if the sentence was straight time prison. Jason said he still wanted a chance at treatment.
Ceci
Incredible. You are so smart!!
That is genius. If only I knew what I know now, I would have done it differently.
So YOU find a way to go back in time. Do they accept this?
Jack
The judge then heard from Jason's therapist that he was fully engaged in treatment and making real progress. From his employer, a former client of mine, who was able to give Jason a job. The ax victim, who told the Court he didn't even want his friend Jason prosecuted, and wanted treatment for Jason.
And finally the victim's wife, so nervous she trembled, told the Court she had known Jason since childhood, that all the violence I described was true, that Jason and his sister would show up at school, cut, beaten, unfed, day after day after day. That there was a time when there was a fight and someone drove a truck right through Jason's house. The kids just lived on the other side, "and no one did anything." But "Jason would give you the shirt off his back." He would be the first to stop for a stranded car. He was kind when he's clean, and she didn't want him to go to prison because it didn't fix him. It seemed to make him harder. She wanted treatment.
All that stage fright, and she made the best statement to the Court. Funny how that works.
Ceci
God bless her
Jack
The Court gave the Prosecutor, Ms. Thatcher, a chance to argue.
The whole room held its breath.
She started.
Stopped.
Went in a different direction. Sensed the room. Stopped.
Made another run at it, but without her heart in it.
Finally, she said she would leave the sentence to the wisdom of the Court.
The Judge thanked both sides.
She said she carefully reviewed all the records, and considered all the statements, "I am sentencing you to prison for a period of 2 years, but I want Mr. Finch to file a motion under Rule 35(b) for a re-screen for PEER 1. Moreover, if you are not accepted into the PEER 1 treatment program, I will reduce your sentence at that time so that you may continue your current treatment program outside the prison system."
HURRAY!!! Like the birth of a child, smiles, handshaking, and back-slapping, all around the courtroom.
Jason, the big lug, was crying again.
The Judge called a recess.
The Public Defender came up to me to congratulate and said he would get his boss to push for Jason for the next PEER 1 vote. The former elected DA for the County, who happened to be in the Courtroom, came up and said he is on the PEER 1 Board and to call him and he'll show me what to do to get the votes for Jason. And DA Kelly Thatcher, smiled and said, "He's got my vote." (You know for a DA, I'm starting to like her).
Jason was taken off to prison, still blubbering tears of happiness.
Ceci
All excellent!
Jack
Thanks, man.
Ceci
I have a question. Can Jason stay clean in prison while he's waiting? Are there temptations in there?
Jack
Remarkable for his size (Extra-Large, and bulging like a stack of Michelins), he has a clean record in prison. On the other hand, it's prison.
He told us about the time a Sureno 13 gang member tried to quit his gang and spend more time with the Native American inmates. He was both Mexican and Native. The Surenos showed up "30 deep," took him in a shower and beat him to death, mostly by each member stomping on his skull. When the gang fled the scene, one member tried to give Jason his bloody shirt. Ordered Jason to flush it. Jason refused. For months he had to sweat retaliation. That kind of shit.
Ceci
Oh god.
Didn't think about the politics in there.
Jack
"Blood in. Blood out"
Ceci
I was just worried once this victory and combined focus of his team leaves his side, he could experience a low, and become vulnerable.
Why are humans like this?
This gang mentality? It always creeps in, the need to control others.
Jack
There are whole libraries of research on gangs. The usual suspects are the need to belong, need for power, and protection. They're everywhere, the Mob, frats, the Masons go back centuries. When I was a little kid we had a gang with a hide-out in our garage, "The Nightwalkers Chub". A member of our gang pointed out how I misspelled club as "chub".
I still carry the shame.
[⭐Vote⭐, Sweetheart, VOTE!]
Photo: Sky Miracle by Ramdlon, 2015 (Pixabay #1122414).