Page 284 - NIXBOOK

There I was in court, waiting for a trial to start. The prosecutor has gone to a lot of effort to make sure the case was good to be
presented, and now all the officers and witnesses and victims involved are gathered, and the jury is going to be selected. The
defense attorney, now seeing that the case is looking grim for his client, acquiesces and accepts a last-minute plea deal so his
client won’t be tried in court, knowing that it would be futile. Was I irritated with this all-too-common defense attorney tactic,
of literally waiting to see if all the accusers and officers actually show up? Yes, yes I was. How many times did that happen to me
during my career? Too many to count. It’s like having to prep for a big exam that gets cancelled; good outcome, but stressful.

House fire. Firefighters go in and carry out the two small dogs that had been trapped in there. They administer oxygen and do
CPR; one dog was saved, the other was a goner. The owner of the dogs and house showed up and was convinced the fire was an
arson set by her neighbor: She was hysterical and I literally had to hold her back from charging at him.

Car v. pedestrian fatality: pedestrian was at fault for darting out in front of a moving car in the dark. As a matter of routine my
report went to the prosecutor’s office for review. The prosecutors read the report and decided the driver was not criminally liable
and they decided no charges were warranted. I felt bad for the driver because it took the prosecutors 509 days to close the case
and write the one-paragraph “Decline to Prosecute” notice and send it to the driver. My copy showed up after (only) 648 days.

I’ve gotten really cynical about a lot of things. When I hear that somebody has killed himself, I don’t automatically assume it’s a
complete tragedy. Because what if the dead guy had been a child molester? Or a rapist? What if he knew he couldn’t control his
compulsions, and in an effort to save more victims from his predatory behavior he decided it would just be best for him to
personally remove himself from society, permanently? You can’t tell me that doesn’t ever happen. So yeah..I’m suspicious and
cynical about a LOT of things.