Two Trips to Shasta... And the Charges Against Me Were Dropped!
Thursday, August 19, 2010: I got up around 6:00 am this morning, and had everything packed and ready to go by about 8:00. Marty had had a late night last night, so he he was still in bed when I headed out to Redding. The trip was uneventful -- listened to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy in the car most of the way. When I got into Redding it was right around the lunch hour and Cypress Avenue was stand-still traffic. It took be almost 30 minutes to get down it and to the hotel (Oxford Suites on Hilltop). I was going to go over to the Arboretum first but it was 90-something degrees outside, and I was stressed from the traffic on Cypress, so I just checked in. They weren't expecting me until about 2:30, but had my room ready anyway, so I just went in there and crashed for the rest of the day. I can go walking through the garden tomorrow after court before heading back to Sacramento...
The room was a single "studio" with a couch and a queen sized bed; just the right size for me. And this hotel lets you bring pets, too, so if I ever have to come back this way, I could bring Sergeant Margie with me! The hotel's ammenities included free wifi, complimentary hot appetizers and drinks in the evening, and a complementary hot breakfast in the morning. The place is right next door to Marie Calendars restaurant, and they'll put together take-out orders for you if you want to bring their food over to the hotel. I was expecting the "appetizers" this evening to be, you know, "bugs on a plate", tiny, unrecognizable things. But instead the hotel served platters of meat and veggie lasagna, and you could eat as much as you wanted. The veggie lasagna had carrots, broccoli and zuchini in it. Both types were served piping hot, and tasted fantastic! I also got a free green salad, and used my "drink" tickets on sodas. -- So I didn't have to buy dinner!
I had brought some homework for me to do while I was in town, but I couldn't focus on it... My brain gets so preoccupied with the court stuff, that I can't concentrate on anything else.
Friday, August 20, 2010: Court Day. Didn't sleep all that well last night, but not because the accomodations weren't nice. The hotel was super-quiet all night, and the bed was super-comfy. My mind just wouldn't shut up... and I was in a "new" bed. Got up around 5:45 to shower and dress, and then went into the lounge to see what the free hot breakfast was like. Biscuits and gravy, potatoes, and Spanish Omelets with salsa and cheese, and then yogurt, cottage cheese, cereals of all kinds, and fresh fruit on the side. Wow! I filled my place with omelet, yogurt and fresh watermelon and took it back to my room where my coffee was brewing. The omelet was in layers: eggs, then cheese and sausage, then more eggs, all covered with pico de gallo and more cheese, with salsa on the side. And I'm not a really big "egg person", but THAT was good. I then set the alarm clock to tell me when it was 7:30, so I could get to the courthouse on time for the 8:15 hearing, and worked on my e-mail and journaling for the time being.
At 7:30 I was off to the court. Now, today's hearing was just a pre-trial hearing to ask the attorneys if they're ready to go. And even though the hearing is set for 8:15, you still have to wait your turn until the judge calls on you (among all the other dozens of cases being heard in the morning session). So for five-minutes of "Yes, Your Honor, we're set to go", you have to wait for, like, 2 hours or something. That I have to go through the time and expense of driving all this way for that frigging 5 minutes at all really ticks me off.
So, I go into court at 8:15 and Dena, my Public Defender, is working in another department so she can't be there, and I get this guy this guy Josh (wgo was really cute!) as my PD for the morning. He says the DA may want to "bargain", and would I be amenible to that, and I told him I'd listen to whatever they had to say, but I wanted the animal cruelty charges dropped. I am not guilty; I'm not going to plead to anything. He went and talked to the new-New Girl Deputy DA (the old New Girl, the one Dena and I hated, quit, so she's not on the case anymore), and the new-New Girl, Diana, says she just got the case that morning, so she doesn't know anything about it. So, we go before the judge and he says, "Are you ready for trial", and we all say, "Yes, Your Honor..." And then he smiles at me, and sends me to ANOTHER courtroom in another building to get the finalized date for my trial set. There are soooo many hearings, that they need a judge to do nothing but but set trial dates.
So, I get to the other courtroom, which is one of the big, "real", swanky ones in the "Justice Center". The Dept 10 courtroom is a hole, and is usually so noisy, with so many people in there you can barely hear the judge speak. In the '"real" courtroom, in Dept 2, you could hear a pin drop it was so quiet. When one woman came in wearing dark glasses, with an unlit cigarette hanging out of ther mouth, the judge stopped everything he was doing, glowered at her and growled, "Take off those sunglasses and get that cigarette out of your mouth while you're in my courtroom!" Whoa! His tone even startled the bailiff... and in that quiet room it was like hearing the voice of God! Hah!
Anyway, my trial had originally been set for Tuesday the 24th, but this judge set it off until Thursday the 26th because there was a larger felony case, with five defendants, that was pushing everything else off the calendar. So, now I have to reset all my schedules next week, and change my hotel reservations... But at least by the end of next week, it will be OVER, one way or another. That gives new-New Girl a few days to talk with Dena. We'll see what happens. I'm very comfortable goin to a hearing; I KNOW they have NO evidence of abuse, so I'm not worried (unless they pull some major lie out of their buttholes, but I don't believe Dena will let them get away with that.) The trial might take 3-4 days, including all the jury selection stuff, pre-trial motions, and whathaveyou. Setting the new date for the trial also took all of 5 minutes, and I was out of the courthouse altogether by about 10:30.
I was too wired to get into the car and drive; needed something "Nature" like to help soothe me a little, but it was too hot to talk through the Arboretum. (Redding in August; not fun!) I went instead over to the Turtle Bay Museum, and went through the butterfly exhibit. They keep the place cool with misters so the butterflies don't burn up... so it was peaceful and pretty in there -- and I was the only person in the place, so it was extra nice. Feeling more calm, I got in the car and headed back home, stopping to eat a little lunch at a rest stop, and at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory to get some treats for Marty and me. I got home about 2:30, and was EXHAUSTED. Watched some TV and then started to wind down for the day.
CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO ALBUM OF PIX OF THIS TRIP & THE BUTTERFLIES
Sergeant Margie missed me so much, he was barking and whining when I got home, and climbed up onto my chest a couple of times to get hugged. I miss him when he's not with me, too. I should sleep well tonight, knowing he's right there beside me.
Saturday, August 21, 2010: Slept really well last night and didn't get up until about 7:00 this morning. It's always so nice to be back "home", y'know. I was ready to murder the hideous child who visits nextdoor, though. She got up the same time I did, and for the next hour or so played "tommy gun" outside, yelling, "ehk-ehk-ehk!" at the top of her lungs while she "shot" all the birds and family members she could see. They tell her to shut up and she ignores them; when they threaten to punish him, she yells, "Mom says you can't hit me! Mom says you can't hit me!", and then goes right on with what she was doing before. Let ME at her, she'll learn some mannerS FAST. Insideous little bastard.
I made myself some coffee and peanut butter toast for breakfast, and then got right to work. Sent e-mails to all of my instructors letting them know about the change in schedule for next week; changed my hotel reservations to reflect the new court schedule; did my laundy; washed the dishes; set a chicken out to thaw so I could cook it for supper; and finished all of my Family Law homework, so I can turn it in early: including: an Order to Show Cause (Child Custody), an Application for Order and Supporting Declaration, a typed out declaration itself, and a Proof of Service by Mail for the Benchmark 2 project; then over overview of California Family Code Sections 4320 and 4325, and finally the chapter reviews for Chapters 6 & 7. Phew! And I got it all done and e-maile
d to the teacher for review by 12:00 noon! Go me!
The weather is beyond gorgeous today! In the 70's, with sofa clouds and a light breeze. Fantastic!
Josh Stuff: My former heald classmate and current FB friend, Joshua Lloyd and I talked over IM (instant messaging) yesterday. He's taking classes in piloting airplanes and helicopters, and had contacted CalFire to see if he could get into any internship programs or something like that with them. Well, he got a e-mail back note back from the head of CalFire who said they're very interested in him, so as soon as he's certified (which may be within the next week or so) he's going to meet with them! How exciting is that?! I'm so proud of him! I told him when he gets certified, he needs to take me on a helicopter ride. Hah!
Movie Stuff: Marty and I watched "The Goonies" today; haven't seen that one in, what is it now, 25 years! Wow. It's still entertaining, goofy fun, but it's real appeal now is seeing folks like Sean Astin and Josh Brolin when they were "little boys".
Tuesday, August 25, 2010: Crap, it's like 110-degrees in Redding today, and 98-degrees in San Francisco today!
Court Stuff: I got a call yesterday morning from Dena, my Public Defender, saying the Deputy DA (DDA) might be willing to drop the "animal cruelty" charges against me, and let me "plead out" to infractions like having "too many dogs" or something like that if I was amenable to it. I told her I wanted to know exactly what the infraction codes were, so I could read them for myself, and I wanted to know if any fines would be associated with those before I made any decision. Later, Dena sent me the codes and, no, I'm not going to plead out to any of them. I want to go to trial, so I can PROVE that the DA has NO EVIDENCE to support their "animal cruelty" claims against me. I'm not going to backed into a corner or asked to "cop out" on myself after a YEAR of going through this ridiculous crap and everything associated with it.
Well, this morning I get a follow-up call from Dena. She had gone with the DDA in front of Judge Bigelow about the case, and the judge said there is something called the "drop dead rule" in Shasta County. If a case gets on the docket for a trial, and you come and ask then, at that late date, to plead out, the court tells you to basically "drop dead". So, then the DDA tells the judge, "I don't believe we have the evidence we need to convict Ms. Hanson on the crimes she was charged with, so we want to amend the charges, and charge her with something else." Now, this is TWO DAYS before trial, remember! In my head, it seems pretty obvious to me that IF THEY DON'T HAVE THE EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THE CHARGES, I SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN CHARGED WITH ANYTHING, AND THE CASE SHOULD BE SUMMARILY DISMISSED! Dena agreed. She also feels that the "drop dead" rule should apply to the DA's office, and that no amendments should be allowed to be made at this late stage in the game. So, she set up another meeting with the DDA to go before the judge and slap that idea around this morning.
Around 10:30 Dena called me back and told me to come to Shasta County, so I e-mailed all of my teachers and let them know what was going on, and then headed "up south" to see what the hell was going on. The drive up was uneventful -- which is always nice; I don't need more drama on top of the court stuff.
I arrived in town about 2:00, got a room at the Oxford Suites, crashed for about an hour and then went to the courthouse. There was a civil trial going on, so I didn't go into the courtroom and instead waited out in the hallway. Dena arrived a few minutes later, and we just hung out and chatted until 4:30 when the civil case c
losed for the day. She said that all of the materials gathered on my case are going to "digitized", and she'll box up all the hard copies of everything for me, and get me the recordings of the hearings if she can, so I'll have that if I want to pursue a tort action against the DA, his minions and Animal Control. That'll be great. She asked about my schooling, and what sort of leagl work I might be doing in the future, and I told her I'd like to work for the ACLU or something like that; some position that defends the disenfranchised and the elderly... She said she was proud of me (awwww). Right around 4:30 the new Deputy DA -- I think she's the 4th or 5th one assigned to this case -- showed up; her name is Diana. We actually kind of like her, even though she works for Satan. She still has some of her "soul" left, and knew she couldn't ethically go forward with this case without any evidence, so she was willing to drop it. Her ethics notwithstanding, the judge had already told the DA to "drop dead", and would only hear a Motion to Dismiss, so Diana didn't really have much of a say on the matter anyway. The statute of limitations had run out on everything else. Long story short:
ALL OF THE CHARGES WERE DISMISSED
FOR A LACK OF EVIDENCE.
After the hearing I shook the DDA's hand, mostly just to be polite, and she wished me good luck. Then the female marshal who was there came up and shook my hand, too. She had been there for all of the previous hearings, and knew what was going on. She wished me luck, too. I thought that was nice of her.
I was exhausted, after the long drive and court and stuff, but happy nonetheless, so I celebrated by getting a pot roast dinner and a slice of pumpkin pie from Marie Calendars, got a bottle of beer, and took it all into my hotel room where I just sprawled on the bed, ate "comfort food" and drank beer until bedtime. SWEET!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010: It's always hard for me to sleep in a "new" bed, and I was still pretty "wired" after the WIN against the District Attorney, so I didn't sleep very well. Got up about 6:15 this morning, showered, dressed, and then got my free hot breakfast from the hotel: scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, sliced melon, orange juice and coffee... and then did some journaling before heading back to Sacramento.
Like the trip up to Shasta, the trip back was uneventful -- which is totally fine with me! I stopped for a little while in the town of Woodland because I'd seen signs about a "historic opera house" there and I wanted to take a look at it. I was able to find it without much trouble, and got a parking place right in front of it, but I didn't go inside. The main entrance is from the 1800's and is all gated off, and the only way to get inside of the place is to go down a short BLACK, literally BLACK, hallway to an elevator with a black door, that leads to who knows where. No way was going in that by myself! So I just took some photos of the outside of it, and of the pretty Romanesque court house nearby before getting back onto the the freeway.
The Opera House in Woodland
Part of the facade of the Opera House (you can see my car through the arch.
Detail of the collums and lion heads on the front of the courthouse
This is the pretty Roman-style courthouse in Woodland. It's visible from where the Opera House is.
Lamps outside the courthouse
This is detail of the carving over the front doors of the courthouse. Along the roofline were statues of Justice interspersed with statues of armored knights
It was so nice to get home and be with Sergeant Margie again! I just collapsed on the couch and watched junk-TV until about 3:00 to recuperate from the drive
-- and the heat, it's 107-degrees here today; pleh! -- and then Marty took me out for a celebratory dinner of Mexican food, at Pancho's, and a pitcher of margaritas. Yummy! Just what I wanted! As we finished off the margaritas, Marty made a toast: "To the pursuit of justice." And I follwed that up with one of my own: "Death to tyrants." He was obviously in a more benevolent mood than I was. Hah!
I did some journaling and photo stuff, then crashed for the day.
Thursday, August 26, 2100: Still decompressing over the court stuff. wow! That kind of thing knocks the stuffing out of you, even when you win. You build up all of this adrenalyn, and then there's this massive "let down" afterwards, like major jetlag.
The air conditioner at the Cabrillo house conked out -- on the hottest days of the year, of course -- and because we'll be moving to the Nona house in another month or so, Marty doesn't want to pay to have the A/C repaired. I can understand his thinking. In the meanwhile, I'll for some fans I can set up in the bedroom and maybe a small one-room, stand-alone A/C unit. Last night, because of the heat, I didn't get to sleep until around midnight, but slept pretty solidly after that and got up about 6:30 this morning. I immediately opened up the whole house to let in some of that wonderful 68-degree air in from outside. We'll shut the place up again as soon as the temperature start to shift up. It's supposed to be 93-degrees today.
I went through 1-800-flowers.com and ordered a bouquet of 50 petite roses to be delivered to Dena at the Public Defender's office on Friday as a thank you for all the help and attention she gave to my case. Also researched some portable air conditioners: I can get self-evaporating models for around $300, but for that we might be able to get the A/C fixed here... Hmmmmm...
Otherwise, I pretty much did some legal reasearch and napped on-and-off throughout the day. Winding down....
CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PHOTOS OF WOODLAND AND PANCHO'S