"The Night Dad Went to Jail," title of children's book

[greynotsoold]

My father never went to jail, but I'm not unfamiliar with the concept. For instance, you are having a party and watching a Chavez fight, a friend goes to get beer and you don't see him again until 1998. In January of 1999, one of my best friends stopped by around 11:30 pm and we made plans to meet for breakfast at 9 am...and I haven't seen him since. He's 13 years into a 57 years to life sentence.

That's a long sentance!

What did he do?

He got caught with a 1/16th ounce of methampethamine and a gun. He was a 3rd striker and took it to trial rather than take a 25-to-life sentence. Just spoke to him an hour ago, as a matter of fact.

That still seems such a long sentence considering he didn't actually do anything as such. Possession, rather than causing trouble.

1.75 grams is such a small amount of anything. I was expecting you to say he was caught with kilos of something or actually shot someone.

Do you live in the US? If so, I thought having a gun was standard practice. No licence required.

Not in California; guns are highly problematic there.
He had two previous violent felonies, so he was eligible for his "third strike", which is a mandatory minimum of 25 to life. He was arrested in January of 09, on the 9th, I believe. On 22 September of 08, the same officer that arrested him in 09 told him that he would get rid of him. He'd either shoot him and plant a gun, or plant a gun on him and strike him out.
The gun was found behind a panel in the back seat of a car, not registered to him, and the gun did not have his fingerprints on it. It took the police 45 minutes to remove the panel to get to the gun, yet they testified, in court, that it was within easy access. The same officer that threatened him arrested him and was the lead witness at his trial. He testified that having that much dope and a gun proved that he was a serious dealer, because only serious dealers carried that a gun and that much dope. Very circular reasoning that was cited by the appeals court, which then used the ezact same circular reasoning to justify the conviction.

[Andre]

My father never went to jail, but I'm not unfamiliar with the concept. For instance, you are having a party and watching a Chavez fight, a friend goes to get beer and you don't see him again until 1998. In January of 1999, one of my best friends stopped by around 11:30 pm and we made plans to meet for breakfast at 9 am...and I haven't seen him since. He's 13 years into a 57 years to life sentence.

That's a long sentance!

What did he do?

He got caught with a 1/16th ounce of methampethamine and a gun. He was a 3rd striker and took it to trial rather than take a 25-to-life sentence. Just spoke to him an hour ago, as a matter of fact.

That still seems such a long sentence considering he didn't actually do anything as such. Possession, rather than causing trouble.

1.75 grams is such a small amount of anything. I was expecting you to say he was caught with kilos of something or actually shot someone.

Do you live in the US? If so, I thought having a gun was standard practice. No licence required.

Not in California; guns are highly problematic there.
He had two previous violent felonies, so he was eligible for his "third strike", which is a mandatory minimum of 25 to life. He was arrested in January of 09, on the 9th, I believe. On 22 September of 08, the same officer that arrested him in 09 told him that he would get rid of him. He'd either shoot him and plant a gun, or plant a gun on him and strike him out.
The gun was found behind a panel in the back seat of a car, not registered to him, and the gun did not have his fingerprints on it. It took the police 45 minutes to remove the panel to get to the gun, yet they testified, in court, that it was within easy access. The same officer that threatened him arrested him and was the lead witness at his trial. He testified that having that much dope and a gun proved that he was a serious dealer, because only serious dealers carried that a gun and that much dope. Very circular reasoning that was cited by the appeals court, which then used the exact same circular reasoning to justify the conviction.

Makes me feel sick reading this.

[0james0]

My father never went to jail, but I'm not unfamiliar with the concept. For instance, you are having a party and watching a Chavez fight, a friend goes to get beer and you don't see him again until 1998. In January of 1999, one of my best friends stopped by around 11:30 pm and we made plans to meet for breakfast at 9 am...and I haven't seen him since. He's 13 years into a 57 years to life sentence.

That's a long sentance!

What did he do?

He got caught with a 1/16th ounce of methampethamine and a gun. He was a 3rd striker and took it to trial rather than take a 25-to-life sentence. Just spoke to him an hour ago, as a matter of fact.

That still seems such a long sentence considering he didn't actually do anything as such. Possession, rather than causing trouble.

1.75 grams is such a small amount of anything. I was expecting you to say he was caught with kilos of something or actually shot someone.

Do you live in the US? If so, I thought having a gun was standard practice. No licence required.

Not in California; guns are highly problematic there.
He had two previous violent felonies, so he was eligible for his "third strike", which is a mandatory minimum of 25 to life. He was arrested in January of 09, on the 9th, I believe. On 22 September of 08, the same officer that arrested him in 09 told him that he would get rid of him. He'd either shoot him and plant a gun, or plant a gun on him and strike him out.
The gun was found behind a panel in the back seat of a car, not registered to him, and the gun did not have his fingerprints on it. It took the police 45 minutes to remove the panel to get to the gun, yet they testified, in court, that it was within easy access. The same officer that threatened him arrested him and was the lead witness at his trial. He testified that having that much dope and a gun proved that he was a serious dealer, because only serious dealers carried that a gun and that much dope. Very circular reasoning that was cited by the appeals court, which then used the ezact same circular reasoning to justify the conviction.

It just seems so wrong, you almost can't belive they would get away with it. To have to serve such a disproportionately long sentence seems absurd. In this country, convicted child rapists will be out in 3 and a half years. Some murderers out in 6.

[greynotsoold]

In California, the sentencing laws are very strict. For a third strike case, which means life in prison, the court appointed attorney gets paid $700. So they tell you to take the deal, which is 25 years. Lawyers get paid by the hour. In that particular case, the lawyer and his "investigator" interviewed no witnesses at all. At one point I brought 5 other people that had heard the threat, and the lawyer's secretary threatened to call the police if we didn't leave. That is how "just-us" works.
Incidentally, on the 22 of September when that threat was made, the police were at my home. I came home from work, spoke to a girl that I was expecting to be there , then heard my dog yelp in the backyard. I went out and had an AR-15 shoved in my face. My house was surrounded by law enforcement vehicles from 4 neighboring cities. Ultimately, there were over 60 vehicles, two SWAT teams, helicopters, and two fire vehicles with extendable booms. This was because I had a 2 story home and they wanted to look into the upstairs windows.
The reason? They suspected that somebody I had known my whole life was "hiding out" in my home. His crime? Failure to report to his parole officer and out-running the police three times when they tried to arrest him. Now, understand, he had already done 5 years in prison on a 2-3 year sentence (that is how parole violations work). So the police stormed my home, stomped out the ceilings of my 2nd floor (he was hiding in the attic) handcuffed my friend, then turned some Belgian police dog loose on him. He took 120 stitches, and did a regular one year parole violation. No new charges.

[generalbulldog]

My father never went to jail, but I'm not unfamiliar with the concept. For instance, you are having a party and watching a Chavez fight, a friend goes to get beer and you don't see him again until 1998. In January of 1999, one of my best friends stopped by around 11:30 pm and we made plans to meet for breakfast at 9 am...and I haven't seen him since. He's 13 years into a 57 years to life sentence.

That's a long sentance!

What did he do?

He got caught with a 1/16th ounce of methampethamine and a gun. He was a 3rd striker and took it to trial rather than take a 25-to-life sentence. Just spoke to him an hour ago, as a matter of fact.

That still seems such a long sentence considering he didn't actually do anything as such. Possession, rather than causing trouble.

1.75 grams is such a small amount of anything. I was expecting you to say he was caught with kilos of something or actually shot someone.

Do you live in the US? If so, I thought having a gun was standard practice. No licence required.

Not in California; guns are highly problematic there.
He had two previous violent felonies, so he was eligible for his "third strike", which is a mandatory minimum of 25 to life. He was arrested in January of 09, on the 9th, I believe. On 22 September of 08, the same officer that arrested him in 09 told him that he would get rid of him. He'd either shoot him and plant a gun, or plant a gun on him and strike him out.
The gun was found behind a panel in the back seat of a car, not registered to him, and the gun did not have his fingerprints on it. It took the police 45 minutes to remove the panel to get to the gun, yet they testified, in court, that it was within easy access. The same officer that threatened him arrested him and was the lead witness at his trial. He testified that having that much dope and a gun proved that he was a serious dealer, because only serious dealers carried that a gun and that much dope. Very circular reasoning that was cited by the appeals court, which then used the ezact same circular reasoning to justify the conviction.

It just seems so wrong, you almost can't belive they would get away with it. To have to serve such a disproportionately long sentence seems absurd. In this country, convicted child rapists will be out in 3 and a half years. Some murderers out in 6.

I always believed that there should be some middle ground. Some guy in jail or prison for drug possession should really need treatment instead of locking him up, just a waste of tax payer's money. But for really serious crimes like murder or child molestation, I say life in prison. Those 2 crimes are the worst of the worst.

[Master]

Is this book about Floyd Mayweather?