So yesterday, on the last day of the week, the judge had set a plea conference for after her magistrate docket at around 11am. I talked to Marc, our state attorney, who told me that I should expect some fireworks. It left me wondering, because all it was was a dumb trespassing charge--how much excitement could there be in a plea to a trespassing charge? Au contraire mon fraire.
"I AM A BLIND VIETNAM VETERAN"
So the hearing gets started and here's the Reader's Digest version of what happened:
Girl comes home, walks into her bedroom and finds the defendant, who apparently is a friend of her brother's, laying in her bed--naked and drunk as a skunk. That part of the story pretty much everyone agreed upon. So the girls father--the BLIND VIETNAM VETERAN (I only capitalize it because the guy must have uttered those words 20 times in 15 minutes)--tells the judge that the defendant is a "predator" and he has "heard stories in the neighborhood" about the defendant. He tells the judge that he has raised 3 children, including his daughter--the victim, who has just finished high school and all of his kids are straight arrows and he once won the father of the year award, and the defendant has sent an email virus to his computer and the defendant tried to cut his daughter off in traffic one day and....well, you get the idea.
So the judge turns to the victim, who looks like she could be Angelina Jolie's sister, and asks her if she's afraid of the defendant. She says....."no, not really" and then looks back at her father and replies..."well, I don't know". The father then goes on to say how when his daughter realized that someone was in her bed, she "smacked him in the face, screamed and told him to get out", whereupon the defendant, who was "holding his package", got up and ran "naked out of the house". He went on & on until finally the judge stopped him and asked the defendant to give his side of the story.
Well, he starts, I'm a student at UCF and was coming down for the weekend with a friend. I wanted to see Jason, a friend of mine since 4th grade who is his son (points to the BLIND VIETNAM VETERAN). When I got into town I called Jason on his cellphone and he told me that he was about 10 minutes from his house and to meet him there. Well, Jason had been kicked out of his house a few months earlier by his father, but was secretly living in the garage.
"Secretly living in the garage?" the judge asked.
Yeah, he and his sister had opened a window in the garage just a little ways so he could get in and out without his father knowing about it. (Embarassed look by victim) So at night, he would crawl in through the window and spend the night in the garage without his father knowing about it. Well, I knew about this window and so when I got to his house and no one was there, I decided to wait in the garage and crawled through the window.
"You decided to crawl through the window?" the judge asked.
I was really drunk, the defendant says. I mean, really, really drunk. So I was waiting in the garage and it was really hot, so I went into the house to cool down a little bit. I took off my shirt because I was still hot and then went to find a place to lay down.
"He knew exactly where my daughter's room was judge. He's a predator!" says Dad, the BLIND VIETNAM VETERAN.
The judge tells Dad to remain quiet and let the defendant finish.
So I layed down, and I guess I took my clothes off and the next thing I know she (points to the victim) is tapping me on my head and telling me that I had to leave.
"Did she slap you and then scream?" the judge asked.
No, she tapped me on the head and said I had to leave.
"Didn't you run out of the house naked?" the judge asked.
No, she drove me home. (Shaking head, denial by the victim) Meanwhile, Dad is making this huffing and puffing noises.
That's what happened judge. I've tried to apologize to her and her brother a few times, but I guess they don't want to hear it. I got really drunk, did something really stupid...but that was it.
"What about this part about you 'holding your package'?" the judge asked.
I was trying to cover myself up with the bedsheet....I wasn't grabbing onto anything.
"And did you make any sexual advances towards the victim?" the judge asked.
"No."
"Would you remember if you had?" the judge asked.
"Yes."
There was a pause as the judge sat back and then Dad began talking again.
"Judge, this man is a predator, he's a drugdealer. He came down here that weekend to pick up drugs to sell in Orlando at his college. I know I'm blind judge, but what I'd really like here is to get 5 minutes alone with this young man. I know I'm blind, but I can still move around."
"I think you are very disturbed sir," the judge says to Dad.
"Excuse me?"
"I said I think you are very disturbed."
"Well if I am its because serving my country made me that way."
The judge had the deputy sit the father down and passed sentence on the defendant.
Part of the sentence was no contact with the family. Any kind. No smoke signals, no emails, no phone calls.....nothing. Understand?
"Yes maam."
"Okay, that's it. Court is over. Clear my courtroom."
"GOD BLESS AMERICA!" says the father as he's lead out of the courtroom.
There's a couple of moments of silence as now its just me, the judge and the prosecutor in the courtroom.
"You have no idea how glad I am that this case is over," says the prosecutor.
"Why's that?" I asked.
"This guy...the father...must call me 3 times a day, repeating the story over and over to me. I know I'm going to get a complaint about this one."
"Why do you think he was so outraged?" the judge asked.
"I think I know why," I said.
"Why's that?"
"Because he has this image in his mind of his daughter....and there's the image of what she is--and there's what she is. She's an 18 year old girl, with no mother, hormones raging....and she and that defendant used to have something going on between them--I guarantee it. He came over, drunk....looking for some sort of a happy ending....and she knew her dad was there and told him to leave. Dad got wind of it.....and thus you have the outraged BLIND VIETNAM VETERAN."
Just call me Perry Mason baby.
Later,
Jeff
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