The four of us stood together at the judicial bar, our lawyer just in front and to the left of
us with the state's attorney to the right. The judge's bench was what seemed to me to be a
long way off, in front and all the way to the left of the court room. The clerk, seated to
the judge's left, read the charges. This was not a trial. Yet. The trial was slated for five
days later. This was a "Departure Hearing", a term unfamiliar to me only a week before. I
don't know how this hearing came about. The short notice of it led me to believe that it
was a surprise even to our lawyer. After the clerk read the charges, the judge asked the
state attorney, "What do the mandatory sentencing guidelines calculate to be for these
charges?" He received the answer, "... to 230 months, your Honor." I had heard those
numbers before and, as before, my stomach tightened and my eyes teared when I heard
them again. "Oh God, don't let that happen", I silently prayed once more. "That's a long
time", was the reply from the judge without further comment.
Week of Hearing
It had been six months almost to the day since the incident started. News of it had
reached my wife Alice and me like a powerful blow to the head and the pain had lingered
for all those months right up until Monday of this week. For the first time, I felt calm and
peaceful that day even though I knew the time of decision was fast approaching. I could
not explain it. When I mentioned this new feeling to Alice, she cried and said she could
not understand it either but today she also had the same feeling. It was real. I do not have
a problem with high blood pressure, but my pressure had been checked twice in recent
months and had increased considerably above normal. We had been schedule to give
blood that evening, and even though an ice storm had hit and traffic was at a standstill, we
went ahead with the commitment. The mandatory blood pressure taken when one gives
blood showed that mine had fallen more than twenty points from where it had been little
more than a week before. It was as though God had heard our ceaseless prayers and was
telling us to leave things in His hands.
We remained calm even when a winter storm hit and threatened to ground the planes on
Wednesday as we prepared to leave for the hearing. I called the airline and asked the
status of our flight only to be told it had been canceled. The next flight was not until the
following morning, and our connection point was in the path of the approaching storm.. I got busy on the phone, calling other airlines and found a flight that had not been canceled.
It was to Orlando, not our destination but close enough. I booked us on this flight and we
reached Orlando late that night. It was after two on Thursday morning before we
exhaustively checked into the Holiday Inn Express in Orlando. The following day, we
drove toward the gulf coast and arrived that afternoon at my son's apartment. Calmness
had prevailed, but apprehension crept back from the waiting as we anticipated the
following morning's hearing.
Trapped By The Web
Jerry had moved to Florida to be close to his daughter. Like many young people of
today's generation, he had married much too young and the marriage was destined to fail.
After the divorce, his wife had moved to Florida and Jerry moved there also to be near his
daughter. Then, last July, on his 24th birthday his loneliness had led to a weekend affair
with a young lady he had met on an Internet chat line. He thought she was 18 years old
because she had told him so and he had no reason to doubt her. They thought they had
fallen in love, not unlike the love depicted in the current popular movie, "You've Got E-Mail". But when Jerry returned home to his apartment that Monday night, expecting to
find his new love, he found instead two policemen waiting for him at his door. The young
lady, it turns out, was a minor and had been reported as a runaway and her numerous
phone calls to him were the pointer that led the police to Jerry's door. The police piled
charges with the result that four "lewd and lascivious" acts with a minor charges were
filed. These charges, we later learned, would translate to 15 to 20 years in prison based
on the strict Florida mandatory sentencing guidelines. That is what had brought us to
where we were now, standing in front of a judge who carried our son's future in his hand.
Hearing Day
The hearing was set for 9:30 AM but our lawyer Nat had asked us to meet him in the
courthouse cafeteria at 8:30 for a briefing prior to entering court. Jerry, his former wife
Wendy, Alice and I arrived promptly. We had rented a car in Orlando and Wendy had
driven us to the courthouse because Alice did not know the territory and because Jerry
was too nervous to drive. Alice and I were glad that Wendy had come. She was showing
loving support as though their marriage had never ended. I remembered the courthouse
that I knew as a kid in our Missouri home town as a friendly, open place in which people
came and went freely. I had forgotten how things had changed until I saw the armed
guards at this courthouse door directing all visitors through the metal detection machine.
Once inside, we found our way to the cafeteria. The courthouse looked very new and
modern and the cafeteria did not reflect the image I had expected of one inside a judicial
building. It looked more like a modern cafeteria in one of our affluent society's
neighborhoods. Clean, bright and very large; many tables, lots of room between tables,
and most surprising to me was the relative quiet. Only a few customers were in it.
We entered and sit at a square table for four. Since Nat was not yet there, Wendy went to
the cafeteria line and returned with coffee for all of us. There were others in the room, but
I had the feeling only the four of us were present. My habit has always been to pray
silently and alone . I am glad that Alice is always quick to do the spoken prayers and I
am thankful that she and others are so good at expressing their prayers to God publicly so
that I can enjoy and agree with them. I was surprised, therefore, when I heard myself say,
"let's all hold hands now and pray for Jerry." We bowed our heads and, in that public
place, each of us in turn gave our thanks to God and asked for his help in the proceedings
about to be conducted.
Nat soon arrived and pulled up a chair to join our table. He apologized for not being able
to meet with us sooner, but he had a hectic week following his trip out of town the prior
Friday. He had gone to Alabama to obtain a deposition from the young lady and to meet
with her mother. Jerry's situation would have been resolved long ago had it not been for
the young lady's parents adamant insistence that he be severely punished for his affair with
their daughter. Nat had negotiated successfully with the State Attorney office and all from
there were in agreement with a non-jail adjudication of the case. But along with Florida's
mandatory guidelines regulations, similar laws put considerable power of punishment into
the hands of the victims. Their adamance meant the state would prosecute toward a
sentence commensurate with the parents wishes. Alice and I had written letters to each of
the parents pleading with them to relent and be merciful. We had no response to the
letters.
Nat filled us in on where things now stood. We were anxious to hear from him as to how
his interview with the young lady and her mother had gone and were encouraged after he
told us. The formal transcript of the deposition had been promised to reach him before
today's hearing, but it had not yet arrived. Nat related that he had interviewed the young
lady and that she reconfirmed everything as disclosed by Jerry. She said that there was no
way, at any time in the relationship, that Jerry could have known her true age. She had
similarly stated this when originally interviewed by the police investigators. Nat went on
to say that based on what he observed of her appearance and demeanor, she could very
well pass for being 18 years of age.
Nat also said that he had had a very good meeting with the mother. He felt that they had
established good rapport and that she was softening in her demands for punishment.
Further, he had talked with the prosecuting attorney yesterday and was told that the
mother had let them know that she had sent an over-night letter relative to the case. Nat
did not know whether or not the letter had yet been received, but we hoped and prayed
that it had been and that the mother had relented.
We listened intently then as Nat began to lay out for us his defense plan to be followed in
the pending hearing. He would request withholding of adjudication in favor of non-jail
sentencing based on three legal grounds. One, the crime was committed in a non-sophisticated manner. Two, remorse had been shown. And three, that the victim was a
willing participant in the crime. In addition, there was no prior criminal record and it was
not likely any other crime would be committed in the future. He had subpoenaed the
arresting officer in support of the first ground based on the record of Jerry's police report.
In addition, Nat had talked to the officer several times and had gotten the impression that
even the arresting officer felt empathy for Jerry having been trapped into the situation.
Nat wanted us to testify to the judge specifics as to what we had observed about Jerry
being remorseful. With that, it was now 9:25 as we left the table and followed Nat up to
the courtroom. I don't remember the trip.
Into Court
We had been warned that Friday mornings were a particularly hectic time here because
that is when all the VOP's were heard. Nat had a habit of talking to us in a language we
did not understand, and I had learned that if it did not seem to be of importance to us not
to ask for interpretation. Later, I learned that VOP stood for violation of parole. But as
we entered the room Nat commented, "That's strange, it's not crowded at all". And it
wasn't. The large room seemed extra wide to me, with benches the full width except for
two aisles on each side. There appeared to be ten or so rows of benches with most of the
back benches completely empty. We sit down at the second row from the back and there
was no one within several benches of us. A small group was in front of the judge's bench
off to the left and another group appeared to be holding a conference also at the front but
to the far right. Nat spotted the assistant state attorney assigned to our case and took off
to confer with him.
Alice tugged at my arm and whispered, "It looks like he has an over-night letter in his
hands.". My heart seemed to miss a beat. We waited. In the midst of this conferring and
conferencing, a hearing was in progress. A young lady, obviously another state attorney
was addressing the judge in a very informal manner. It seems that the petitioner, her foe,
had been found guilty of some grievous offense and now was petitioning for a new hearing
on the grounds that his court appointed attorney had misinformed him of his rights. Or
something to that effect. Based on what the lady state attorney was saying, I thought she
was arguing against the appointment of a new attorney. The judge agreed with her.
"Your honor, does that mean I am not allowed to hire my own attorney?", the accused
man asked. "Absolutely not, you can hire anyone you like", said the judge. That
particular hearing ended and the next was in progress. The next was a hearing for a parole
violation. I lost count of the details of the many prior arrests and convictions, but heard
the jest of the violator's pleas that he had violated parole because of a failure in the
system's drug prevention program.
I lost track of the court proceedings when Nat returned to our area. He looked shaken.
"The state attorney received the letter from the mother, but she still refuses to relent on
her demand for punishment. The state attorney will argue that for her", Nat told us that
bad news but he was not finished. "I am not going to call the arresting officer". "He says
he won't testify that Jerry was remorseful because he has no way of knowing whether or
not what Jerry was saying was truthful. He thinks he ought to go to the slammer." Our
hearts sink, our hopes of resolution were shattered. Nat saw the disappointment and
complained that he wished people would not lead him to think one thing when they had
another in mind. But these developments did not matter, he would continue to argue the
case just as he had laid it out to us. He went on to say that he felt more confident than
usual that if we had to go to trial, this is a case he had a good chance of winning. That
statement was made to reassure us but it missed its mark. Then we heard the judge ask
for the next case and the clerk called my son's name.
After the charges were read, the judge started to ask Nat to proceed with his reasons for a
request of departure, but before he could finish the question the judge suffered a
prolonged coughing attack. "I'm sorry Nat, I'll try again", the judge apologized. I felt
some confidence in the judge's obvious acquaintance with our attorney. Nat knew the
system and the people well, he himself having served in this county for more than five
years in the State Attorney's office. Nat responded to the judge with a personal word of
concern for the judge's health and then proceeded with his arguments. "The facts of this
case are not in dispute, your honor", Nat stated, "On that I have conferred with the state
attorney and we agree." Nat continued to support this by telling the judge that these facts
are futher confirmed in the deposition of the victim. He apologized to the judge, saying
that he had expected to have available at this time the formal transcript of the deposition,
but that it had not yet arrived. He asked permission to have the transcript introduced into
the records once it became available. "Your honor, may we approach the bench?", Nat
asked. With the positive response, he and his adversary approached the bench and a
conference of several minutes duration pursued.
Then Nat very succinctly related the details of what had occurred. Too succinctly, I
thought. There was only one interruption by the state's attorney and it was on a minor
point. Nat had stated that the girl had run away from home. The state attorney wanted to
clarify that she had run away from a home in Florida where she had been on a visit, not
from her mother's home in another state. Then, again succinctly, Nat stated for the judge
the three grounds for departure that he had previously reviewed for us. The state's
attorney then asked to be heard. The prosecutor told the judge that the victim, in the
form of the parents, wanted to see punishment invoked to the tune of one year and a day
in jail. Following that, Nat told the judge that the three of us standing with Jerry were
there to testify on his behalf. The judge said he did not think that would be necessary
since, under the circumstances, he could well imagine what we would say and he would
prefer to skip it in order to save time. Nat could only agree. There was additional minor
discussion. The judge asked Jerry where he went to school. Jerry answered ITT.
Decision Time
The judge made his decision almost immediately and stated the grounds and conditions
upon which he would offer withholding of adjudication. "Nat", he said, "confer with your
client and then come back. In the meantime, we'll proceed with the next hearing". We
left the main room and entered the court's outer room, in which there were two small
conference rooms, one on each side of the hallway. Nat opened the door of the one on
the right. A court attendant was sitting alone there, so Nat asked if we could use the
room. The attendant agreed, if somewhat reluctantly, muttering under her breath as she
left that she thought she could sit in the other room.
"We got everything we could have hoped for", Nat said. "When the judge refused to let
you testify on Jerry's behalf, I figured he was going to allow withholding of adjudication."
Then we discussed the conditions. Two years community control followed by three years
of probation. No access to Internet chat lines. Not allowed to be alone with anyone
under 18 years of age except for members of his immediate family, and, of course, no
contact with the victim or her family. Nat explained the restrictions that are typically
imposed on community control. They are harsh and, said Nat, 80 to 85 percent of the
people given community control lose it due to violation. "But", he said, "that's because
most of them are criminals to start with". The number one reason for violation of
community control or of probation is commission of another crime.
The decision seemed pretty clear. Accept the conditions and try to make the best of them
while continuing school and remaining with the family, or risk losing it all and going to
prison for many years. But it was Jerry's decision and none of us were going to make it
for him. He of course accepted the conditions. We returned to face the judge.
The other hearing was just ending as we entered the court room and the judge asked Nat if
we had reached a decision. Nat said yes and he and Jerry again faced the bench. The
judge spoke to Jerry, "Do you understand the conditions stated and do you want to accept
them and finish this matter today instead of proceeding to trial?". "Yes sir". The state
attorney spoke up, "Your honor, we recommend the three years probation be as sex
offender probation.". The judge answered, "Probation will be regular probation".
Life Goes On
And that's the way it ended. All of us thank all of you for your prayers in Jerry's behalf.
They have been answered. True, he must still pay stiffly for his misfortunate affair, but not
in prison and not in separation from his daughter and family. While we believe that a jury,
made aware of the special circumstances of the case, would have found him not guilty,
there was no guarantee that would be the verdict and mandatory sentencing guidelines
could have meant up to 20 years in prison. Community control is a far better alternative.
There are two levels of community control in Florida. In one, electronic bracelets that
track the location are worn by the subject. In the other, no bracelet is worn but activity
outside the home is strictly limited and subject to spot checks by a community control
officer. Jerry can work and go to school, but other activities such as going to the
laundromat and grocery store can be done only at times set forth in a written schedule.
After his initial interview at the community control office on Friday, it was indicated that
he should not even take his dog out for a "walk", use the apartment complex swimming
pool or other facilities, or go to church. We are quite sure he will at least be allowed to
go to church, but these guidelines must be verified by his assigned control officer with
whom he has not yet met.
These conditions will be hard on Jerry, particularly because of his love for outside
activities. But God has answered another prayer and returned his former wife to his side
to help him get through these trying times. We are almost afraid to say that they have
re-united for fear it is not true or will not last.. But for now, their daughter has a mother
and father living together and Jerry has support to help him cope with his new restrictions
to freedom. Together, they are looking toward the next two years as a challenge and as a
stepping stone to a new and wonderful life. Wish them well.
UNRESOLVED/RESOLVED
The nightmare returned two weeks to the day following the
judge's decision. That day our attorney routinely checked the
court computers to see if the downward sentence had yet been posted.
In his words, he was "stunned..." to discover that the State had
filed an appeal to the judge's ruling. After six months, we were
right back to where we had started. We were again looking at the
potential of twenty years in prison.
We were devastated.
We felt we had been lifted up to the heights, and then rudely slammed
down to the depths of despair.
Nat, our attorney, investigated and learned that the decision to appeal had been made by the State Attorney himself. The Assistant State Attorney and his immediate supervisor had indicated their agreement with leniency as granted by the judge. Nat immediately made an appointment with the State Attorney in an effort to find out what had gone wrong but said he doubted the State Attorney would reverse himself. The appointment was set for four days later.
We had been devastated by news of the appeal. But surprisingly, after praying about it, by the second day calmness had returned. We felt that God was with us and eventually it would turn out alright.
Good News--Resolved Again
Early afternoon on the fourth day I received a phone call. It was Nat. “I have good news...”, he said, “...the State Attorney has agreed to withdraw his appeal.”
Resolution had returned as quickly as it had been snatched away. It was one last message to us that God is in charge
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