Round one

Stephanie, Vincent, and I went to see the court worker today (Stephanie and Vincent pictured above in the waiting room). The woman we saw was an African American woman who turned out to be very sweet. She ended up sharing with us about her bout with a brain tumor last year. However, some of her news was shocking. We thought she’d have discretion to divert Vincent to an alternative program. Instead, she said the county attorney’s office had checked a box meaning Vincent’s case was headed to court no matter what happened today. We set an appointment for next Thursday, but then changed it to Monday in a week and a half, when Stephanie has spring break and so doesn’t have to miss work. Suddenly, then, - with Vincent headed to see his girlfriend – we went back to my office and started working the phone and Internet to find a lawyer. It was tough late Friday afternoon, but we ended up with an embarrassment of riches: We called four lawyers from church and got recommendations from two, including one person who called back and we scheduled an appointment with. Before that, I found someone on the Internet (?!) who specializes in juvenile criminal defense work and said he actually called in a bomb threat to his college when he was just a little older than Vincent (and wound up in jail) – but today if someone did that they might not be able to ever become a lawyer (something Vincent has in fact expressed some interest in). So now we have appointments with two different people and calls in to a lawyer from church who actually does some of this kind of work and a call into someone else recommended by a different lawyer from church. Another one of the church lawyers called back this evening while we were in a (three-hour) movie. Some of these lawyers may charge by the hour, but many may charge a flat fee – which could range from $750 to well over $1,000. Both lawyers we made appointments with said a key thing is to try to get Vincent’s record expunged. The Internet lawyer sounded more like a lawyer – imagining different features of the case that might exonerate Vincent (mental health problems; the prosecutors may have trouble producing Vincent’s former classmates as witnesses). The court worker was more impressed with things that seem more significant and substantive to us: Vincent has changed schools and is pursuing (perhaps) graduation and Vincent went to inpatient behavioral health care for a week and is following up with counseling and medication. The Internet lawyer made one interesting suggestion: He encourages his juvenile clients to get jobs and help pay their own legal bills, instead of just relying on their parents. I hate having to make decisions like this (my Baskin Robbins dilemma), and we’ll probably have more lawyers call over the weekend and on Monday. The calling during the movie lawyer may help us vet some more of these lawyers. One complicated thing is that the church lawyer who does this sort of thing we think doesn’t like Vincent, which could complicate things. Besides costing us a fair amount – when we may be getting a new engine for the Camry also – this involves getting us out of work a bunch at a time when everyone is worried about their jobs. Between the court worker and the two lawyers I talked with, it seems while Vincent’s case is going on or later, besides going to juvenile detention, he could wind up in some kind of house arrest with or without a bracelet where he would be supposed to be home or with us or at work or school only.

-- Perry