[blog before this] I Pled Guilty
There was a knock on my front door one morning around 9am. I was in the bathroom getting ready to go and see a girl and when I heard the knock, I remember thinking that it was her. I rolled into the living room and opened the front door but there was no one standing on the other side.
I pushed the door shut and rolled backwards away from it and watched while it slowly stopped right before it could close. I remember feeling frustrated that the door did not shut when I had pushed it. Before I approached it, a black dress shoe snaked throught the door and it was followed by a leg that pushed it open even further. When I had seen the shoe I had thought that it belonged to a friend and they were messing with me, but I knew otherwise when the leg coming through the crack in the door turned out to belong to a cop.
His eyes began scanning the room as he stood in my living room holding the door wide open with the side of his foot. He began to study my face before asking me if I was alone in the apartment. He relaxed when I answereed him and then he held up a piece of paper that he haad been holding in one of his hands. He asked me if I was Brandon and when I told him that I was he was hit with a look that was a mixture of confusion and surprise. He asked me if I had always been in a wheelchair. Some one else in the hallway said something to him and I heard the policeman mention something bout a wheelchair before turning back to me. He handed me the paper and told me that they had a warrant for me and I would have to go with them. The person that was out in the hallway stuck his head in the doorway (another officer) and asked me if I could walk. I told him no and he turned to the policeman who was standing in my living room and told him that they would have to call the wagon. I did not want a police van to pull up and draw more attention from the nosy neighbors. I told them that I would be able to get in the car if they helped me.
I went to my room to grab a shirt and my shoes and heard my cellphone ringing with one of my sister's ring tones from where I had left it in the living room. I heard 1 of the cop's answer the phone, that's right, my phone! The other cop followed me back out to the living room where I heard the cop tell my sister that I was going to be arrested. (Thanks officer!) The cop would not give me my phone, he told me that he would hold it and give it back when they were done with me. When we had gotten outside I noticed that each of the officers had driven their own cars and, many of the neighbors had come out to watch.
Let me paint you a picture of what you would have seen if you were that day...
A police officer walked to one of the police cars followed by a guy in a wheelchair that had a officer walking behind him while holding onto a handle of the wheelchair. (did he think I was going to roll away and try to escape?) I was starting to feel embarrassed because I could feel everyone watching me and to make matters worse, the police were giving me the silent treatment. (I probably should not have gone there, but I did.) I turned to the cop behind me and asked him if he was bored, when he asked me why I would ask that I suggested that if he was he should give me a 10min head start. He looked down at me with a look of confusion on his face and I had decided that I had better explain. I told him that I would roll away and they could chase me down as if we were on that show COPS. I was only joking at the time but I remember that neither he nor his partner had shared in my sense of humor. I was led to the back of the cop car that was the closest to the apartment The car was being driven by the cop that was walking behind me. (He was also the one the one that had first entered my apartment.) The officer had walked around to the front of my wheelchair and helped me stand and swivel into the back of his squad car. At this point I was expecting him to through my wheelchair into the trunk of his car, but he went around the car and put the chair in the backseat with me. I asked him to run the siren or at least turn on the flashing lights but he would not.
The ride to the courthouse was boring and it would have been a silent ride if the police radio would not have been on.
When we arrived at the courthouse we were met by 3 other officers. One being the other cop that had come to my apartment to get me. I was unloaded at the back door and the 4 officers followed me into the empty courtroom and the officer that I rode with had directed me where
to park my chair. I remember how I had looked around the room and then my eyes had came
to rest on the judge's desk. It was on a slightly higher platform that the rest of the chairs in the room. The Judge's big black leather chair looked like it was the most comfortable chair in the room. The judge was certainly not in a hurry but when he entered through the door by his bench, he did not look like he was very happy. It was right around lunch time and I guessed his was interrupted so that he could deal with me. If I wasn't on his bad side before, it did not take me long to be:
He opened a folder and glanced it over before he looked directly at me and asked if I was Brandon. When I had said Yea, he repeated the same question but the tone of his voice was that of aggravation. I again said yea to his question and this time he pulled his eye glasses of his face. I could tell from his body language that he was upset, then he began to stare a hole through me. He told me that he was going to ask me the question again and he expected me to give the answer of either yes or no. He asked and I answered. He then glanced down at the folder and asked me why I had never paid my court fine and I told him that I had made 1 payment but,.. He had interrupted me by mentioning the amount (50.00) and in a smart-ass tone he had said something like, payments like that were going to pay the debt off quickly. I had told him that was a lot of money for someone like me. He asked me if I had a job and I had told him that I did not. He asked me why I did not have a job and I told him that I did not drive and there were no jobs near my house that I could physically do. The judge looked me in the eye and told me that it would be easier to get a job, if I took some of the metal (piercings) out of my face and did not look like a fish on the end of a hook. (ha ha. First off, judge or no judge, there is no need for anyone to insult me when I am in a position of being humble to that person. Without missing a beat I had asked him for a job. He had ignored me and then wanted to know why I had not contacted the courthouse and worked something out. I told him that I did call the court house and they informed me that when given a fine, you had to pay it. He asked me why I did not just borrow the money from my parents. I told him that I could not come up with the money. He restated what I had just said and then added in another question wanting to know why I went a year with the knowledge of having a bench warrant out for my arrest. I told him that I had been told by a friend that I might have a warrant, so I called the Police Station and they could not tell me if I had... He interrupted me again and told me that I was under oath and was not going to come inside his courtroom and start lying. When I had asked him what he was talking about, he looked down at the folder that was in front of him. He told me that there was no record of me calling the court house and then he turned to one of the officers that had brought me in. He then asked the officer for verification on what I had just said and the officer of course, agreed to the point the judge was trying to make of having me saying that I had called the court house to check on the bench warrant. I corrected the judge and told him that I had said that I called the police station and not the court house. At this point the judge was trying to patronize me with his tone and then asked me if he should ask a different officer about what I had just said. He had a smile on his face and it was at this point that I begin to get very angry. I told the judge that of course the officer was going to agree with him any of the four officers in the room would agree with him, even the bailiff would agree with him. Then the judge interrupted me but I was not through with making my point. I had told the judge that I had stated that I called the police station (The truth is I had called the police station and asked them if I had a bench warrant out and the person on the other line had informed me they couldn't give that information out over the phone but if I would come down to the police station and present a valid photo I.D they would be glad to help me out! Fuck that l.o.l) and not the courthouse. The judge dismissed me and told me to not speak unless spoken to before continuing his lecture to me regarding lying under oath.
IT WAS AT THIS POINT THAT HE WAS ABOUT TO GET REALLY HEATED WITH ME,
I told him that I was in the wheelchair cause I was handicapped not because I was retarded, He got really loud. He had threatened to charge me with attempted court if I spoke out of line one more time. He then dropped the point of lying under oath and then read the rest of the folder that was laying in front of him. He commented on me completing my hours of community service.
THAT I DID.
I was probably the first guy in a wheel chair in Darke county to have to do community service. My other friend had to pick up garbage along the highway and do other various physical labor jobs for the community, while I had to do my community service for the court house 75 hours in the court house? When I arrived there I had to wait for an hour while they decided where to put me and then I met Gus. They had decided to put me down by the front door to greet people and give then directions for inside the court house. Gus was a senior citizen that volunteered every day, and man what a character he was! Gus would come in for 3 hours everyday and direct guests in the direction of where they needed to go inside the court house. I was assigned to help him and do it each day after he left. I did this for a week, for 7 hours a day. I did not take a lunch break because I was told that if I worked straight through for one week then I would be excused of the remaining hours of community service that I owed. But for the hours that Gus was there the time went by quickly. He had so many interesting stories to tell me about his life. Even though my community service was so many years ago I still will remember the game the 2 of us would play where we would take turns and try to greet someone coming in to the building, better than the other of us had greeted the previous person.
The judge asked me if I wanted to go to jail and I told him that I did not, but I did not have the money that I needed to pay my fine off. (I barely had any of my disability check left to buy food after paying my bills, let alone anything else.) The judge repeated his question again and I turned to one of the officers and held up my wrists. (being a little dramatic? was not my intention to be.) I looked at the Judge and told him that he had to do what he had to do. I then repeated that I could not afford to pay the fine. The judge then spoke like he was at his wits end and declared that I would set up a payment plan and I would get my fine paid off, because if the cops had to bring me in again then I was going to do some jail time. He then instructed the bailiff to take me to set up a payment plan.
I was escorted out of the building by the 4 cops that had stayed in the courtroom with the judge and I. The officer that had brought me in was pushing my wheelchair and he seemed to be the only one that was interested in talking to me. I remember him telling me that I was a pretty cool guy but I needed to learn when to keep my mouth shut.
I was driven back to my apartment complex sitting in the backseat of the cop car that had taken me to the courthouse. My wheelchair had once again been folded up and crammed into the backseat with me. I had talked the cop into turning on the radio for me and I jammed to JIMMY HENDRIX, for the remainder of the drive.
Like they had done when I left, all the nosy neighbors came out of their apartments and watched the cop unload me out of the car.
I got my fine paid off and found out that when I had gone to the DMV the day before to renew my permit, I was turned in.
