On the fifth floor of the Franklin County Courthouse, one of the more conspicuous figures is a bailiff by the name of Stan Wilder. He’s a fine professional, and I’ve always enjoyed working in his courtroom. A few months ago, I had a teenage client who showed up for court dressed like a real gangsta, with low-hanging pants that would have fit Dumbo the elephant. As we entered the courtroom, Bailiff Wilder said to my client, “Tuck your shirt in and pull your pants up.”Mr. Wilder’s tone of voice and demeanor would have made a Marine drill instructor proud. The kid immediately pulled his pants up and tucked his shirt in. If Mr. Wilder told that kid to sit down, I doubt he would have stopped to look for a chair.
A few minutes later, after we’d resolved the kid’s case, I commented to Mr. Wilder that if that kid had someone like him at home, the kid would not be in court to begin with. I managed to get Mr. Wilder to crack a smile.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Deborah Pryce
A few months ago, I was having lunch with my father at the independent living center where he resides. He pointed out to me that Deborah Pryce, who is the Congressperson for this district. He also mentioned to me that Representative Pryce had adopted a biracial child and commented in his most sage voice, “She’s going to have problems later on.” I managed to refrain from banging my head on the table in exasperation. Instead, I let out a very deep sigh and patiently explained to my father that as a lawyer who spends a great deal of his time in juvenile court, I know more than any sane human being about what it takes for a child to wind up in a PCC (Permanent Change of Custody). Unless someone resents some charge of positively horrendous conduct on the part of Representative Pryce, I would say that the child she adopted has won the grand price in the adoption sweepstakes. I realize that my father’s perceptions of race relations are rooted in his experiences growing up in Arkansas in the 1920s and 1930s. I also manage to mildly comment that if my father knew anyone of any color or social status who went through life without having any problems, I would very much like to know who they are.
Visit to Lucasville
More than ten years ago, a woman retained me to look into the case of her one-time boyfriend who was serving thirty years to life in Lucasville. (That’s Ohio’s maximum-security prison.) I learned that he’d taken a plea bargain to avoid a possible death sentence. He had been charged with stabbing a convenience store clerk to death in order to steal a case of beer. Shortly after that incident, his girlfriend discovered that she was pregnant. Welcome to the world, kid. You are so screwed. I found the visitor’s waiting room at Lucasville one of the most depressing places I’ve ever seen. A great many women with children, and most of the white women had biracial kids. Well, maybe one of those kids will grow up to become President, but that’s not where the smart money goes.
I did speak with the young man at some length and found no basis for an appeal. Trying to be useful, I did manage to make one helpful recommendation: that when his first parole hearing rolled around in twenty years, that he might want to get rid of the three-inch swastika tattooed on the back of his left hand.
Just recently, another lawyer pointed out to me that, perhaps, that young man’s tattoo was not so much a political statement as an effort to protect himself from would-be predators.
I did speak with the young man at some length and found no basis for an appeal. Trying to be useful, I did manage to make one helpful recommendation: that when his first parole hearing rolled around in twenty years, that he might want to get rid of the three-inch swastika tattooed on the back of his left hand.
Just recently, another lawyer pointed out to me that, perhaps, that young man’s tattoo was not so much a political statement as an effort to protect himself from would-be predators.
James Trimble and Christina Ricci
In the movie The Addams Family, Christina Ricci played Wednesday Addams and, in once scene, arrives at an Addams family Halloween party dressed in her every day clothes. When a sweet old lady asks the young lady, only 11 years old, what she has come dressed as, Ricci replies, in a matter-of-fact voice, “I am dressed like a psychopathic serial killer…We look the same as everybody else.”
I was reminded of Ricci’s comment a few years later. I was once a member of a National Guard contingent in Athens, Ohio. The platoon sergeant was a man named James Trimble. I thought he knew his job quite well and I couldn’t help but notice he wore the 82nd Airborne patch on his right shoulder. Years before, he had seen combat in Grenada. One month, I noticed Trimble wasn’t around and I made some inquiries. To my shock and horror, I learned that he was in London Correctional Facility for having molested his own seven-year-old daughter. I enquired further and, with the permission of Trimble’s family, I consulted with his defense counsel. I actually read the confession he had signed. I even visited Trimble in prison. While he was evasive, he did not deny the charge against him. That conversation took place almost twenty years ago. I still cannot fathom how anyone could commit such a horrible act against any child, let alone their own. Perhaps Christina Ricci and the writers of The Addams Family had a point: sometimes psychopaths look just like everyone else.
I was reminded of Ricci’s comment a few years later. I was once a member of a National Guard contingent in Athens, Ohio. The platoon sergeant was a man named James Trimble. I thought he knew his job quite well and I couldn’t help but notice he wore the 82nd Airborne patch on his right shoulder. Years before, he had seen combat in Grenada. One month, I noticed Trimble wasn’t around and I made some inquiries. To my shock and horror, I learned that he was in London Correctional Facility for having molested his own seven-year-old daughter. I enquired further and, with the permission of Trimble’s family, I consulted with his defense counsel. I actually read the confession he had signed. I even visited Trimble in prison. While he was evasive, he did not deny the charge against him. That conversation took place almost twenty years ago. I still cannot fathom how anyone could commit such a horrible act against any child, let alone their own. Perhaps Christina Ricci and the writers of The Addams Family had a point: sometimes psychopaths look just like everyone else.
Sherman’s Straight Shooting
General William Tecumseh Sherman is remembered today, 125 years after his death, for two quotations. One is “War is hell,” and the second is, “The Sherman Statement.” Sherman was a great soldier who had absolutely no political ambitions. This is a rather ironic because both his adopted father and his older brother John were U.S. Senator. He once commented that if he had the choice between serving three years in Washington, D.C. or the same amount of time in prison, he would gladly choose the latter. After triumph of President Grant’s second term, some Republicans tried to encourage Sherman to be a candidate for President. Sherman wouldn’t hear of it. He stated categorically, “I will not run if nominated and will not serve if elected.”
This put the kibosh on any “draft Sherman” movement. Today, any time a politician denies having Presidential ambitions, reporters will follow up by asking, “Are you willing to make a Sherman statement?” I have yet to hear anyone do so. General Sherman set a standard for straight shooting that will never be exceeded, unparalleled in the past century.
This put the kibosh on any “draft Sherman” movement. Today, any time a politician denies having Presidential ambitions, reporters will follow up by asking, “Are you willing to make a Sherman statement?” I have yet to hear anyone do so. General Sherman set a standard for straight shooting that will never be exceeded, unparalleled in the past century.
Walter Brennan’s Secret
Some of my readers might remember Walter Brennan as a character actor in Westerns who usually played the excited old codger who bursts into the sheriff’s office, proclaiming, “Sheeeriff, Sheeeriff! Black Bart’s come into town and says he’s aiming to kill ya! What you reckon we oughta do?” It comes as no surprise that in the 1930s, Walter Brennan won three Academy Awards as Best Supporting Actor in the short space of five years. A few actors have won three times, but no one has ever done so in such a short period of time. I recently learned Walter Brennan’s secret. Back in the 1930s, film extras were allowed to vote for Oscar winners and, apparently, Brennan was extraordinarily nice to the extras on his films. Shortly after, Brennan won his third Oscar, the Academy changed the rules and eliminated the film extras from the voting pool. I’ve never seen any of Brennan’s Oscar acceptance speeches, but I hope he remembered to thank the little people.
Jim Corbett
I once saw a news item about a game preserve in India founded by a big-game hunter named James Corbett. Indeed, it was named for him. When I first read that, I thought, “Dang, that guy really got around!” The James Corbett I knew was an American boxer who was heavyweight champion from 1892 to 1897. I learned there was an English Jim Corbett who was in the English Army and was an avid conservationist and, perhaps, the best big game hunter who ever lived. For readers who disdain big-game hunting, Colonel Jim Corbett was one of a kind. He specialized in killing maneaters who were usually ld and decrepit. Of the 19 tigers and 14 leopards Corbett killed, almost all of them had attacked and killed people. Corbett’s opponents, virtually all of them maneaters, had taken down approximately 1200 people. Corbett, therefore, performed a public service. I also learned that Corbett did not use beaters, as some rich dilettantes did. He went after them with nothing but his rifle and his dog and his ONE dog, named Robin. (How appropriate that a great hero would have a sidekick named robin.) Colonel Corbett lived to be 80 and was escorting then-Princess Elizabeth when she was notified her father had died and she was now queen. Colonel Corbett died the year I was born. Had I ever met him, I suspect I would have liked to ask him what duct tape he used to keep his gargantuan brass cojones from clanking together and giving away his position. Readers can decide for themselves who is more macho: a heavyweight champion or a hunter who specializes in tracking down maneaters.
As long as I’m on the subject of hunters, I’ll mention someone at the opposite end of the scale from Corbett, for whom I have nothing but the utmost respect. Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu fancied himself a big-game hunter and enjoyed shooting bears at one of his national parks. The game keepers set up feeding stations for the bears located close by a shooting blind where Ceausescu demonstrated his prowess as a marksman. Upon reading about this, I thought that for all the skill he showed, he might as well have gone out to a local cow pasture and blazed away at a herd of Holsteins. I thought President Ceausescu was a thoroughly evil man who deserved being executed along with his equally evil spouse at the time of the Romanian Revolution. While he was shot, personally, I thought it would have been poetic justice if he had been fed to the bears.
As long as I’m on the subject of hunters, I’ll mention someone at the opposite end of the scale from Corbett, for whom I have nothing but the utmost respect. Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu fancied himself a big-game hunter and enjoyed shooting bears at one of his national parks. The game keepers set up feeding stations for the bears located close by a shooting blind where Ceausescu demonstrated his prowess as a marksman. Upon reading about this, I thought that for all the skill he showed, he might as well have gone out to a local cow pasture and blazed away at a herd of Holsteins. I thought President Ceausescu was a thoroughly evil man who deserved being executed along with his equally evil spouse at the time of the Romanian Revolution. While he was shot, personally, I thought it would have been poetic justice if he had been fed to the bears.
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