Toast

If you ever want to see a parade of the most fouled up people you can imagine-spend a day in Norfolk General District Criminal Court and see the display of humanity brought before the Judge.

One man had been charged with over 100 crimes on various occasions and had over $12,000.00 racked up in fines and court costs-I had never until this day heard a Judge say to someone that they (the Judge) wished they'd leave the City of Norfolk, but that's what he told the defendant.

Another young man was charged with not complying with the terms of his probation and failure to appear not once, not twice but three times-the Judge ordered an immediate drug test and the young mn was next seen wearing a pair of handcuffs.

Which brings us to the reason Miss Scarlett and I were there-Copernicus was having his peliminary hearing. Just a week before, Copernicus declared that the Commonwealth didn't have enough evidence to proceed with charges and would most certainly be released this day.

Copernicus was offered the same plea bargain that the two other boys got-plead guilty, we'll wrap all the charges up into a neat little package and you go and spend 6-8 years in a more rural environment in another part of the Commonwealth. According to Copernicus, God spoke to him that morning and told him not to accept any plea bargain-demand a trial-and his attorney very nearly lost his mind upon hearing the news. The Commonwealth Attorney was like, "that's cool, throw down!"

When the testimony began, I wanted to leave my seat and throttle Copernicus right there in court. During the robbery it would seem, he grabbed the 60+ year old Asian store clerk, manhandled her and held her at knifepoint while making her open the register. The police had the knives that were used, some of the clothing they wore, the videos, the testimony of his two co-defendants and oh yea, a signed confession from Copernicus himself stating that yes, he had participated in these two robberies. Miss Scarlett and I had the chance to speak to this poor woman and her co-worker after the hearing and wht could we say? We both apologized as sincerely as we possibly could and my feeling of guilt was more than profound. This poor woman kept saying "he very young, he very young" and I think she might have even felt sorry for us.

Having said that, the Commonwealth had more than enough for the Judge to certify the charges and send them to a Grand Jury.

About an hour later, Copernicus nearly blew up the phone in his lawyers office and said that he'd take the deal that was offered, too bad for him it was a "first-time-last-time" offer and no longer on the table. Oh, by the way, the Commonwealth Attorney would be adding the five other felony charges to the list for the second robbery as well as two other burglery charges we didn't know anything about. This could mean that Copernicus was facing 14 felony charges and should he dare take it to trial, the Commonwealth could more than satisfy any burden of proof and Copernicus could very well spend the rest of his life in a Virginia Prison.

Not a very promising future for a young man just 23 years old.

Apparently now another plea deal is being worked out where some of the charges that would have otherwise been overlooked will be brought into the picture and I'm sure that the Judge will hear all about Copernicus and his apparent disregard for the rule of law-I keep thinking that these are the things they CAUGHT him doing, so I can't help but wonder what else he's gotten away with?

So, the saga with Copernicus continues, but let me ask you-what do YOU think a just and porper sentence should be? Do you think that he should have been offered the same deal since he was the ring leader or, do you think he should get more time and if so, how much? Both Miss Scarlett and I think that more than 8 years is deserved, but what is just? What is excessive or, should he ever walk the streets a free man again? Should there be anything of his life left to salvage?

Joining a none-too-liked list

Sandra Hofstadler's name became infamous this week and synonomys with a lot of what is wrong with our judicial system. She joins the ranks of Alfredo Ramos who killed two teenage girls minding their own business, sitting at a traffic light in Virginia Beach several years ago and threw the issue of illegal immigrants breaking our laws into the national spotlight. Now we're going to start insisting that DUI's be treated more severely.

I watched the video of her just before she was arrested by the police and besides "freakin'" she was also doing something called "tweakin'" (Watch her hands) that I use to see a lot as a trucker-the truckstop prostitutes would do this a LOT from whatever drugs had ravaged their system and brain. It's a sad sight to see because even in spite of what she is alleged to have done, there are people (like her Mother) who care about her and she has harmed people who were simply sending their kids off to another day at school.

In the forums, I can't help but notice there is a LOT of outrage and calls for the maximum penalty of law applied to this woman (Hofstadler) from what I assume (by their screen names) women and I suppose that is only natural since children are involved in this sad, tragic crash.

Notice, I didn't call it an "accident," I called it a "crash" because an accident is when a coffee cup slips from your grasp and shatters, a crash is what happens when an intoxicated person slips behind the wheel and shatters the lives of others. Big difference there.

I saw the mug shot of Hofstadler after she was arrested and she's looking pretty rough in that photo. Compare that with the not-too-bad looking middle aged woman sitting at the bar in this WAVY-10 interview done just a few weeks ago. It's easy to see the dark circles under her eyes and it looks as though she's been awake ever since that interview.

Something went terribly wrong between new years eve and Thursday morning, I don't know what, I can't speculate but all I can say is that people (and the courts) can be pretty forgiving of mistakes as long as your mistakes don't hurt others. When your mistakes or lapses in judgement hurt someone else, especially a child, or in this case, three children doing nothing more than being in their yard and trying to go to school, sympathy dries up pretty fast and mercy for your misdeeds isn't something (most) people are interested in hearing about-they want you to be punished severely.

The saddest part of drug or alcohol additction is this:It's like the person addicted has a rope tied to their waist and that rope is also tied to the waist of anyone who cares about them. If the addict decides to jump off that cliff, the people who love them are taken down, too. The problem is when that rope also snares people who don't even know the addict like these four people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time were trying to start a school day when Ms. Hofstadler came along and changed their plans for the next few months, years or perhaps forever.

I'm not going to belabor the "Don't drive under the influence" message again. People have heard the message, understood it and in some cases still ignore it. But this is what happens when people drive under the influence. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but sooner or later, fate just has a way of catching up with you.

The Assault Continues

I've been throwing away a LOT of stuff lately. I threw out all of my logbooks I've been saving from like 1993. Every day I was on the road was accounted for there and since I'm done with trucking, I saw no reason to keep those logbooks around anymore.

I threw away/shredded a lot of old records from the early 90's, found some stuff I have been looking for like my new binoculars and my night-vision monocular, I got rid of a HUGE bag of old clothes that didn't fit me anymore and still haven't gone through my dresser yet. But the closets are all cleaned out and all of my clothes are hanging up-I even managed to put them all on the same color hangers. That's a little OCD I know, but it does look nice. I am finding space I didn't realize I had and there's going to be another two trash containers filled to overflowing for the Tuesday morning trash pick-up and we'll start all over again.

I'm liking this "living minimalist" idea and have grown quite tired of tripping over stuff or opening a closet door and having the contents attempt to knock me out.

Miss Scarlett likes it, too. You know, this is the first time in FOREVER she has been able to push her office chair all the way up under the desk without it taking up half of the room-she's liking that and I'm LOVING it because that chairs legs are brutal when you stub your toe against one of them.

You never realize how much stuff you collect until you start throwing the stuff you don't need out-and then you wish for a bigger trash can-or two!

The next phase is to move downstairs and assault the closet at the bottom of the stairs, then the Utility room and after that, the mother of all clean-out projects, our storage unit!

Here's the funny part-this all started because I was intent on finding that which was lost-which was the crevass tool for our vaccume cleaner. I still haven't found it yet, but I'm sure it's in this house somewhere and it will be found because I'm not going to simply run out and buy a new one.

Now finding it has become a matter of pride.

Abducted by Aliens

So last night after dinner was finished, I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, cleaned up the kitchen, took out the trash and then moved the second container out to the street so they both get emptied today, set up the coffee for this morning and finally, refilled the water stations for the cats, scooped the litter boxes and asked Miss Scarlett to take the cover off the last litter box in advance me me cleaning it out. Then upon finishing that, took the bag of waste out to the trash and viola'! I'm all done.

I did impress upon Scarlett's brother, "Lurch" that I needed him to fix one of the hall closet doors most ricki-tick as this closet door being operational was central to my plans for the coming weeks.

Miss Scarlett looked at me like I was from another planet. She said, "Who are you and what have you done with my husband?" I looked at her and said, "I'm doing what you ASKED me to do, what's the problem?"

She just looked at me and said, "Nothin', nothin' at all." Well, actually it came out, "Nuuthin', nuuthin' at awwwl" (Remember, she's from JAAW-ja). I looked at her, rolled my eyes, shook my head and went back upstairs to attend to my computers backup.

I'm getting to the "Spring Cleaning" a little early is all-and since the City of Virginia Beach has started a new, $10.00 per month trash fee I'm going to start discarding more and saving less. I've got TWO trash containers and I am going to do my dead-level best to fill them each and every week just to get my monies worth.

Of course, I'm still the designated "Pack Mule" in that EVERYTHING that comes up the steps in this household is hauled up by ME or it simply stays downstairs.

That's GOT to change.

Assaulting the Housework

Today I made Miss Scarlett a promise-I wouldn't simple "do" the housework, I would assault the housework. Oh, yes, we were going to get some stuff DONE today, and thank God I have TWO city of Virginia Beach garbage cans because if they're going to charge me $10.00 per month to pick up my trash, I''m going to give them some trash to deal with.

Things started simply enough-I started by trying to clean and organize my desk, then we moved to the bookcase where we boxed up about 5 book boxes with old books we're taking to the library. We have exactly ONE box that we're putting into storage and a few other odds and ends. We also came across some music CD's and three brand new Star Wars collectors edition soundtracks that have never been opened. I'm going to have to do some research on those because I'd like to turn those into cash-they're leftover from wife 1.0.

So we managed to get some bookshelf space opened up in our office, we got rid of a lot of "clutter" in here which is good because next week, we're going to clean out the closet in the office that hasn't been opened in liek three years-I'm sure most of everything in there will go out. All the cat boxes were emptied, scrubed, re-filled and set back up, all the floors were cleaned and somehow, I managed to cleant he kitchen not once, but TWICE today.

I'm just tired of all the clutter and the start of a new year is I suppose the best time to deal with that.

Also more big news, both Miss Scarlett and I are attempting to quit smoking-again. More about that on my other blog on HamptonRoads.com. We're just tired of hacking our lungs up and we can think of many other better things to do with the $100.00 per week our habit costs us.

We even cleared out an entire bookcase with a small cabinet at the bottom for Miss Scarlett's exclusive use and now for the first time in forever, she has a desk that is clean and clear, not overflowing with papers, an ashtray and God knows what else. Hey, maybe this year she won't forget to pay the water bill two or three times and we won't get it shut off on us-saving us another $60.00!

I think that will be our new years resoluition or goal-room by room, we're going to go through each space and eliminate the clutter that we're tripping over-we're going to get rid of the clothes we don't wear anymore or don't fit us, we're going to finally let go of the things we didn't want to throw away but still never used and finally be able to open a cabinet door without something falling on our heads....

That would be nice. Be sure to read about our attempt to quit smoking (again) on my other blog-and have a little sympathy for us, it's a tough, uphill climb but I think this time, we CAN do it.

We Only Had One Chance

Since beginning this blog, one of the major issues I have written about was the deplorable conditions of the Virginia Beach Animal Control Shelter.

I also said that we needed to build a new animal shelter and forget about any attempt at rehabilitating the old one. It was too far gone, too out of date and not worthy of so many animals lives having been cut short from illness and disease that ran rampant through this sad building tucked away from the sight of the public.

We now have an animal shelter in Virginia Beach that is worthy of our great city and as I have maintained throughout the uphill fight for this facility, we would only have the chance to do this once in our lifetimes.

The new shelter has it's first adoption event today and after 34 animals left for new homes, it was a great start to a shelter that will hopefully be there serving the needs of companion animals long after I no longer walk this earth.

Things were hectic today and I was running late, I was supposed to be there at 10:00am to do pictures with Santa-I was the photographer and brought all of my gear so I could take some great pictures that wouldn't disappoint those who wanted a picture of their new pet or children with Santa. I snapped off some good ones and got more than a few ooh's and ahhh's from those who wanted their picture made. I was happy to do it.

Mada, one of the volunteers from the "Friends of Animal Care and Adoption Center" was there and acting as the duty traffic-cop, making sure everyone who wanted to be waited on had a number, dog lovers made it to the dog runs, cat lovers found their way to the new cat environment and did everything she could to keep everyone's spirits up and those animals heading out the door.

The young ladies who were staffing the counter which I renamed "The Phalynx" focused on their jobs like a laser and kept the stream of people moving through and I only heard one complaint all day from a man whose patience was wearing thin. I told him, "Look, it's opening day, they have some new procedures, they've been dealing with a few glitches and they're dealing with more people than they've ever seen before-why don't you cut them a break, huh?" He agreed and ended up taking a new pet home after a while.

Oh sure, it wasn't the 27 million dollar palace we in the animal welfare community had hoped it would be and there have been complaints about the final cost but I think that the service this building will eventually provide the city will be more than worth the cost in todays dollars. There are still more who call this a four-star hotel for dogs but I would simply submit that a project like this was long overdue and hey, if they're going to overpsend on something, it may as well be on something that the city actually needed and will use for years to come rather than a shiney new hotel.

So it was a strong start to what I hope will be something that helps change the minds of a lot of pet owners in Virginia Beach-I hope it convinces more people to spay and neuter, I hope it teaches them to obey the law where their pets are concerned and I hope it lives up to Virginia Beach being a "community for a lifetime" long after I'm taking a dirt-nap.

A New Shelter in Virginia Beach

I'm going to probably catch sam-holy-you-know-what from my conservative friends over this one, but before accusing me of taking a step on the Liberal side, let me state my case-then decide for yourself.

I even took it upon myself to make sure that at some point in the future, others will know what we went through to get this shelter and how it all came to pass, but more on that later.

Well, the new shelter opened today and it is far and away the best shelter around-and it should be for the price we paid but hey, we went with a sub-standard shelter for so long, I would simply consider the additional cost a "stupid tax" and be done with it.

Of course, there are detractors to the price and while I appreciate their concerns, I will tell you that an animal shelter is a facility that just can't be slapped together and requires special surfaces, equipment and now, add security measures because sadly, some of these animals coming into the shelter are considered "evidence."

Hopefully, the days of parvovirus outbreaks are going to fade into a bad memory and in the near future, more adoptable dogs and cats will be heading out the front door rather than the "back door" but it was a day that has been long-awaited and finally realized.

I'm sure you will read and see more about this new shelter as the days pass and congratulations to the Friends of Virginia Beach Animal Care and Adoption Center for seeing a long-held dream finally realized.

Now on to something else.

I started making noise for a new animal shelter back in 2004 and I have related the story of how I became involved in this issue several times throughout this blog. I even took it upon myself to write a mini-book I suppose you could call it that included newspaper articles about the old shelter, photographs, state veterinarian reports and lots of other interesting things, sealed them all up with an 8GB flash drive containing all the documentation in a large piece of PVC pipe, capped, then sealed the ends and hid them somewhere within the shelter as it was being constructed. I watched it being entomed by the construction workers, so I know it's there.

Look all you want, but only I know where it is and that's a secret that will be going to the grave with me. I do however know that it will be found one day, opened and seen by future generations because this is the kind of history that gives an insight that the newspapers or the "official" accounts just can't or won't relate.

Tell your kids and your grandkids about it-it will make a heck of a news story at some point in the future.

Tougher Times Ahead

I was touched by this story of hardship that ran in todays paper. It would seem that despite having worked all of their lives, playing by the rules and being honest, the folks in the sotry about being homeless has touched off a firestorm of debate in the comments section.

In my regular job, I work in a seniors-only, tax credit, income restricted apartment building and the one phrase I hear more often than any other is, "We have a waiting list." Folks who meet the requirements are stuck with the fact that there is a list of people months-long and the really morbid irony about it is, they have to wait until our current residents either die or become so fraile that they can no longer care for themselves and they either go to an assisted living facility, a nursing home, to their own family or, some other provision is made because they can no longer live by themselves.

I guess that's at least one of the reasons why they call them the "golden years" because if you don't have a lot of gold, you're not going to like the choices you have.

Our apartment building is about 122 units large and believe me, with the number of people retiring or being classified as "elderly," I will bet you right now that we could build a new property 4 or 5 times the size of what we currently have and once word get's around that it's going up, we'd very likely be 100% leased out before the project is ever finished with more folks banging on the door, trying to get themselves or their family member in. I see folks trying to do whatever they can to see if they can hurry the process along or, get themselves higher on the waiting list, but as I understand it, there is a certain way the waiting list must be administered so as not to have or give the appearence of being unfair. Of course, a lot of folks might consider it unfair that they have to wait, but there's exactly nothing I can do about it. That's what happens when you have a limited supply of anything and a demand that can't be met overnight.

I'll tell you what else I'm seeing-a few of the adult residents are letting their adult children stay with them because not only are times tough, but then we come back to that old "what's a Mother to do?" Do you demand adherence to a policy forcing a Mother to turn her back on her own child or, do you look the other way because you know how tough it is right now and realize that sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones?

Of course, when you add these facts to the other truth in Virginia Beach as well as Norfolk that we're just about out of land available for development and there's a finite amount of Section-8 vouchers available, and more and more people becoming "seniors" every day, all you have to do is couple these with the long, slow and expensive proposition of getting older and eventually dying in America and you'll see that we have plenty of problems, not enough funding to address them and not only is government running out of money to stem the tide, they're also running out of workable ideas-I think we're at the point that in desperation, the crazy ideas might be worth a try. I can tell you that the ever-increasing amount of regulatons coming down from Washington isn't doing much to promote the idea of companies investing in building more rental properties unless of course there is a healthy investment in a "public/private partnership" from the taxpayers and these days, it's all "upscale" housing with an upscale pricetag seniors can't afford on a fixed income.

I can tell you myself, that even when you apply the old rule of "family should help" that opens a whole new can of worms. Not only are families scattered to the four winds these days, I have often heard it said that "there can't be two queens in the same castle" and if you've ever lived with family, you have to know that is the God's own truth. There also can't be two kings, either.

Decent, affordable housing is something that is badly needed-this story illustrates that better than anything I could imagine. Our Mayor Sessoms in Virginia Beach promised in his last campaign to push for "affordable housing as a component of all new housing developments" but I haven't seen too much of that at all. No, this city government would rather spend millions we don't really have on hotels-just sweep the homeless under the rug.

You know, when you have a government pushing millions for a hotel we don't need over the obvious need for some form of safe housing that people like the ones talked about in this story obviously need and need it right away, You know, the story also pointed out that it's illegal to sleep in your car but I would simply have to ask how any policeman who counts him or herself as a member of the human race could even begin to consider the very idea of writing someone a summons for being homeless and having nowhere else to slee BUT the inside of their car? Shoo them along to appiese some property owner, sure. Try to give them some help with finding a line on a place to stay, hey, "to serve and protect," right? But actually writing them a ticket with a fine and court costs for being homeless?

That's the worst case of "kick 'em when they're down" I could possibly imagine.

Ill-Informed Youth

I recall when I was a kid, we all had our own ideas how it was Gene Simmons of KISS could "breath fire," we had speculated everything from surgical implants to a gas-pack of some sort under his costume. We had also speculated that his tongue was so long because some Doctor had cut something under it that made it longer.

When you look back at some of the truths you thought you knew to be facts when you were a kid, you get quite a chuckle.

I say this because Miss Scarlett & I took the Tide to go and see Copernicus this week-it drops you off right in front of the Norfolk City Jail. I had explained to one of the Commanders at the Norfolk City Jail that his Mother hadn't seen him in some months and we were concerned for him-we were also concerned that his girlfriend would tie up all his visits and God-shield we should get in the way of "young love" so we were granted a special visit during the afternoon. Since meeting Copernicus, I have become quite adept at navigating the legal system, the Sheriff's Departments of two cities and have learned things about our judicial system that I could have gone the rest of my life without knowing and been equally happy.

When the monitor came on, there was Copernicus, looking quite dashing in his zebra stripes and as soon as he saw his mother, he acted like a bitter, caged animal still attempting to hold on to some sort of control of some kind. He admonished his mother that she wasn't who he was expecting to see and he didn't appreciate the fact that she was taking up his only visit for the week. He also told her that "You're breaking the no-contact order!" we had asked a Virginia Beach Court to place on him 6 months ago. Miss Scarlett told him that the no-contact order was the least of his problems and hey, if you want to make an issue out of it, just go to the Virginia Beach Courthouse and file a complaint with the clerk. She also informed him that this was a special, "off the books, one-time-only, special visit that Jimmy arranged for me, so it wouldn't count against your regular visit."

Copernicus true to form wasn't worried about anything else except seeing his girlfriend-and Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

Funnier still, his girlfriend seems to think that he could get probation and house-arrest/confinement and Copernicus has convinced himself that since "this is (his) first offense, it won't be all that bad!" He complained that his attorney hasn't contacted him and Miss Scarlett told him that she had tried to contact his attorney on several occasions with no success. But the truth of the matter is, Copernicus confessed to us as well as the Detective that yes, he committed the crimes he is accused of because he was desperate for money to prevent him and his girlfriend from being "out in the streets." They used the money to get an apartment which wasn't their little love-nest for long before being raided by the Norfolk Police, warrants in hand.

After about ten minutes, Miss Scarlett handed the phone to me and Copernicus listened to what had to be the worst news he has ever heard. I told him that since he had racked up about 13 criminal violations in the past 18 months and was still on probation in Norfolk as well as Virginia Beach, he had also refused to pay court costs in either city and now he was charged with a violent crime, he would probably be facing about 10 years or more in prison. Copernicus just couldn't seem to get it through his head that his previous crimes would be considered as a factor in his case because as he stated, "Misdemeanors don't t count because THIS is my FIRST felony!"

I looked at the monitor and said, "Copernicus, you have been in trouble with the law almost the entire time you have been in this state, you have racked up a long list of charges since arriving and they are oly getting worse. In the past 5 years, you have been in jail now three times and I promise you, everything you have ever done sine the first time you got locked up WILL BE a determining factor in what the Commonwealth Attorney offers your Lawyer." He asked, "Well, why hasn't my Lawyer even called me?"

I said "I don't know, maybe since you already confessed he figures you know more than him and you don't need his help-if I were your Lawyer, I'd call in sick because if I were him, I wouldn't want the job of trying to defend this set of facts."

That's when I let him know something that he wasn't aware of-"Did you know that one of the victims of your robberies went to the hospital in an ambulance after you left?" His face lost it's color and his eyes widened. "No" was all he could force himself to say.

"If she had died of a heart attack or stroke because of the stress you subjected her to, you would be facing Murder II charges, so you'd better hope she stays healthy-and you're real lucky the store clerk at the CITGO didn't have a gun. But you can believe that they'll want to have a say in the jail time you get."

"You have really done it this time and you're facing ten years or more in prison-they're not going to play with you anymore and you are going to prison. I honestly doubt that your girlfriend will wait that long for you, so I hope she wasn't the only reason you did this to yourself."

As it turns out, she WAS the reason he got this idea in his head and after a few weeks with no arrest in the case, I'm thinking he throught he got away with it. What a rude awakening it must have been to have the Detective find you after several weeks. According to the accounts of his girlfriend, Copernicus was confused at the time of his arrest and acted as though he had no idea what was going on-the truth is he knew exactly what this was about and was simply trying to win an award for his acting ability.

I will hand it to Miss Scarlett, she still loved her child desipte the fact he can do the dumbest things and she's still willing to be there for him because as I explained to him before, his Momma will still be his Momma long after his girfriend has moved on to other things. As we boarded the train, I was thinking about the future-where would this train eventually go, would it go to the Beach? Chesapeake or Portsmouth perhaps? I was thinking about what had come to pass just around here in the past ten years and what could come to pass in the next ten-and then I tried to imagine being confined to a prison for that long. I shudderd at the thought.

Credit where credit is due-thanks to the Norfolk Sheriff's Department for their courtesy and their professionalism during our visit. I know that the inmates in their custody are still inmates even on their best day, but love him or hate him, Copernicus is still someone's child and we worry about him. He's gotten himself into a place with some folks that we would normally try to avoid in our day-to-day lives, and now he's living with them. We also know he's not the brightest bulb in the marquee sometimes and that's what worries us the most.

Copernicus is scheduled for trial on January 30th, won't be much of a trial with the Commonwealth Attorney waving around confessions from all three of these boys, but the time they are hit with is really anyone's guess. I guess if there's something to be thankful for, at least they didn't commit their crimes in Virginia Beach because I know Harvey Bryant and I also know that "tough on crime" is more than a saying here, Virginia Beach is downright unmerciful where crime is concerned-and that's how we like it.

But imagine yourself standing before a judge and being told that for the next ten years of your life, you will have your freedom taken away. You will be sent to an awful place and every aspect of your life will be controlled by the state. I hope Copernicus learns from this-I hope he learns that he must play by societies rules if he wishes to return one day, but for now, his fate will be horse-traded among Attorneys and the Courts, where once "in the system" you will find that it just doesn't care about your wants, wishes and needs, but getting to the end of the docket.

The only thing I can think of that might work in Copernicus's favor is, the trial will be in January, so no one will be in a hurry to get to the golf course. I can't help but wonder how many criminals have received extra time because their lawyer or the Commonwealth Attorney or even the Judge didn't want to miss their tee-time?

It only get's worse

Interesting things learned today-Copernicus was alleged to have been involved in another robbery of a gas station on Military Highway the same night.

IS ANYONE AWAKE AT THE VIRGINIAN PILOT NEWSROOM!? I can't believe they missed this one entirely.

I have also learned that both of his (Copernicus) co-offenders are pointing the finger at him, saying he was the "mastermind" because he needed money for an apartment.

This is quickly going from a bad dream to becoming a full blown nightmare and the thought of having to drive all the way out to a place like Wallens Ridge which is out in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, or Mecklenberg isn't appealing at all.

Do they even have/heard of WiFi anywhere around there?

A friend of mine who has spent over 30 years in Law Enforcement told me just a little while ago that this boy is "hosed." (his words) He stated that "Jimmy, he is about to get hammered and now you're telling me there were TWO robberies? My God, he won't be out of prison until he's YOUR age and he's about to learn that now that he's in the system, the system just doesn't give a (expliteve omitted) about him and his Mother is the only person who even likes him anymore."

His words, not mine and it doesn't get anymore brutal than that. He also told me to caution Miss Scarlett that we're "not out of the woods yet" because since this may be an ongoing investigation, there is the possibility that the Police uncover more crimes and file charges on those, too because once they get started, they don't stop until they have covered every base.

I'm starting to wonder how it can be that a person can even begin to consider the possibility of being sent to prison for such a long time-I cannot imagine that possibility nor would I ever want to.

Tough days ahead for Miss Scarlett-or any parent with a kid in jail.