There Are Nuggets of Muck Inside All of Us
Our challenging bits are part of what it means to be human
I attended a probation violation hearing for a friend last month. I’d never been inside a courtroom before. Never heard real lawyers present their arguments. Never listened to a judge offer his opinion and verdict. All three were much less eloquent than I imagined they’d be.
The prosecution painted my friend in a horrible light. That was her job of course. She’s trying to protect society. She used statements riddled with superlatives about his character making it obvious she never interviewed him. He’s not the dangerous menace to society she claimed him to be.
His lawyer tripped over his words at times. He wasn’t very polished yet despite his bumbling, he presented a more fitting picture of my friend.
During the preceding the judge read the parole officer’s evidence against my friend. Before the hearing, my friend met with me and filled me in on what happened but he didn’t get into all the nitty-gritty details of the violation — and I’m not gonna lie. A few bits of what the judge revealed were challenging to hear. My friend replied yes to every count.
The judge spoke in circles while he gave his verdict but what I gleaned from his longwinded and convoluted decision was that…
