Someone I've known for the last 13 years was sentenced to jail today for 1st degree criminal sexual assault. Allegedly he sodomized an 8 year old.
The young child wasn't believed by any of the adults that cared for her. But this is par for the course. . . the mother of the child was seeing the accused.
Here is the kicker. There was no evidence of penetration. No evidence of contact at all. The pro-bono lawyer didn't want Jonathan (not his real name) to take the plea, but when faced with the prospect of 25-life Jonathan was scared. I've known him since he was around 13 or so. He's been in and out of minor trouble, and hustling pretty much since then. Last we heard (before this) he'd been living with some woman or another, in a small shack in Detroit, "looking for work."
So of course when we FIRST heard the story, we just assumed that he did it. All of us. He wasn't a particularly bad person, but he was shaky enough that none of us put it past him. And when we heard a fuller version of the story, we just assumed that the pro-bono lawyer just looked at the case without looking at the evidence and threw him to the wolves. Both of our assumptions were wrong.
Now? He's still looking at life. Not life in prison mind you. But he can't be around kids without supervision--EVER. He has to be registered as a known sex offender. He was never eminently employable, but there are now certain jobs he can never get. And in the likely case he gets out and has to start all over relationship wise, I don't know how he can overcome the issues that will arise. Because most prisoners aren't guilty of what they are accused of right? That and a dollar will get you. . . absolutely nowhere (gas is too high).
Damn.
Posted by at August 6, 2004 08:52 AM | TrackBackever seen city of god?
Posted by: Lester Spence at August 9, 2004 06:40 AM
Somebody needs to buy Jonathan a ticket to Brazil, when he gets out.
Posted by: Cobb at August 6, 2004 03:43 PM