Don’t get caught doing anything wrong there. You won’t like the consequences. If you were already down on your luck, this is no place for you.
Please read my other posts here. They are all about one mother and son.
Bad headlight. Bad trouble
40. After you’ve been put into the police car, what happens to you?
After the mug shots and finger printing. I guess you get jail clothes. You are allowed one phone call. If you can call Perry Mason and speak to Della Street you will probably get off. If you are a normal person in a strange town, who do you call? IF you are down on your luck, who do you call?
Liz, how did this particular county jail treat you?
Well … thats it … you’ve answered your question. After you’ve been placed into the police car, the cop drives
you to the facility where they take pictures and run your fingerprints through their nationwide database system.
The process is different in different jails, but between the time you enter the jail and the time you’re housed
you’ll do the following things: mug shots and fingerprints, meet with a nurse for basic medical history and blood
pressure tests, “dressing in” where you get clothes and other necessities like dental care and soap. In a big
county like Harris County here in Houston, you’ll have your first court appearance before you get housed, which is where you can enter a plea, charges are formally put on you and you’ll hear about your bail amount … in a smaller facility like Taylor County, bail is already set and that first appearance wont be for a while. If you’re
just passing through a town, its certainly hard to get bail … after all, bail is a promise to appear in court on a certain day, and if you’re just passing through, that means you just have to pass right on back for court … you
don’t know anyone in town, and have no ties so its hard for a judge to accept that you’ll be back, so bail is usually higher for people from out of town. You hit the nail on the head about the bondsmen … its next to impossible to secure bail from a bondsman because they’re putting money up for bail on a person who might be hundreds of miles away the next day, which is too risky a move for most of them.
Individuals who are broke will go through that very thing. If you cannot afford bail, you do not get out of jail … its that simple.
As far as treatment … I could make this question into an entire book. The second you are arrested your rights disappear. I has mistakenly thought ..and had been told my entire life that you are innocent until proven guilty ..Good luck on that one ..Most cases never come close to that point. You take a plea to get out of jail because you either do not get bail/bond, or it is too much money or even that a bondsman will not bond you. It isn’t as if most criminals or drug addicts have any assets to put up against it, and definitely most do not have any credit left to speak of …If you are extremely fortunate you may have a family member or friend that will ..So, how many people are willing to loose their jobs, home, car, children and so on to sit in jail and wait about a year for a trial. Speedy trial? I got my first pre indictment deal over 3 months after I was arrested.
Hello World
I know this is not the worst problem in the world, but my two friends are being manhandled by the “Justice system” in Texas.
She is a mother, not a drug addict. Her son has been clean for three + years but a judge is sending him to a place for rehab. It’s called Safep.
Liz is trying. It’s hard. Rent was due and she had nothing. I gave her as much as possible for rent, meds and her cell phone bill. She’s broke again.
One afternoon a few weeks ago, she gets a text:
“Client CRAIG, A payment of $313 is due when you report for the admin. hearing this month. Call me with?. Officer BRYAN”
How nice. She’s in Houston now and the hearing is in Abilene. 350 miles away. It should be obvious that she doesn’t have the money needed to get there and back (assuming she is allowed to leave).
** UPDATE 12/14/15. This was just a warning. I gave Liz 1/2 of her probation money for the month to avoid the actual hearing in Abilene**
I was going to let her tell her story here in a nice way. Trying not to make enemies. That road was just washed away.
I sent her a couple of notes with some questions I had been wondering about. I’m just going to insert them here now. I hope people look in the mirror and see how pretty they look.
FYI – Liz has a lot to say.
Hi Liz.
Questions. Write as much as you want.
1. The Durango was stolen when on what date?
In or around 06/06/12 and 06/08/12 ..It was a day or two days before I was stopped on I20. The trip was taking longer than I planned with a lot more stops than I planned or more like, longer stops. I bought the ’89 convertible Mustang GT on the road from the motel where the Durango was stolen. I searched Craigslist and had a few people bring their cars that where listed for sale to the motel and met them downstairs to test drive them etc. I ended up having to stay an extra day/night in Lubbock because I woke up with a flat tire on the Mustang and ended up having to replace all 4 tires and also had a new Alpine stereo installed.
The keys where not left in it .. When I woke up in the morning at the motel, it was gone. The only items I had in the motel out of it with me where Sean’s backpack (no wonder he brought it in @@) and my little overnight bag I had packed at home for the trip, knowing it would be a lot of trouble to dig my huge suitcase in and out of the car just for an overnight stay.
2. How much of your stuff was in it?
A LOT of stuff was in it. I had it packed to the brim with all my better things that I did not want to loose. Besides the little overnight bag and Sean’s backpack ,,, I had a suitcase PACKED with my fav, best clothes. All my “7 Seven” jeans Cole Haan shoes among several of my best high name brand shoes that ranged from shoes that matched the gowns from Nordstroms to Soloman hiking boots to 5 kinds of teva strap ons and about 15 pair of teva flip flops and workout Asics to fur lined uggs and fur lined others in addition to some born and ariat and so on ..Although I packed a lot fo them on the van also, our hockey skates (Sean’s cost around $700-800), I had several very expensive “gowns” ..ball/formal gowns… Also some expensive antique gowns that had been my great aunts and my grandmothers and mothers, and my mother’s designer debutante gown that was more like a wedding gown and had been special stored at a cleaners that specializes in doing that, my great great grandmothers crystal, my great aunt’s antique/discontinued full set of 18 silverware, some photos, including irreplaceable ones like my mother’s deb ones, some of the kids and various vacations, oil wells that my grandfather had found built and owned both grandparents, sporting ones, holiday ones, my large Kitchen Aid mixer and Cuisinart, my jewelry box from Neimens that had various items in it including a ring from Tiffany’s and my extra cc cards, my important files which included birth certif, immunization records, investment paperwork, PURE REAL TRUE perfume ranging from several small bottles of Joy that had been my grandmothers (many ounces each ..just one bottle would buy me a car today) to Chanel to Guerlain, a couple of sentimental Waterford pieces like the clock that was a bridesmaid gift from my father’s wedding to my stepparent, some of the artwork I had painted plus a large painting my father had done of the beach and an Audubon print that was my grandmothers, some of the antique linens and a few of the blankets and sweaters my grandmother had knitted, our Christmas stockings my grandmother needle pointed when we where born, both my mink coats; one was my grandmothers and one from one of her best friends, Kobler when Kobler passed away and so on …
3. Did you leave it running or were they keys in it?
(too bad his drugs weren’t in it.)
Right!! No he had the backpack on him in the hotel and was the only thing he brought in … I only wish I would have been nosy and looked in it! Of course, I can wish all kinds of things but nothing can change the past. The key was on Sean because he drove most the way. The full intention was for him to drive the entire way. He had never driven that far before though.
4. Do you have the time and date when you left the message for the insurance company?
No idea. ugh It would have been the same date.
5. Do they pay you for it when your vehicle is stolen?
Pay ME ??! Right. I can’t even get Netspend to honor their policy on stolen funds. They claimed I took too long to reort it but I was in jail and reported the card/money theft the week I was releaesed, They did ask for a lot of back up which took me another month or so to get all of it to them. ie- the police report that I had to go get back from that town. After all, I had NOTHING at the time and no way to even make a call, I had to go to the library to look up the Ace number then netspend, borrow a cell to call, make the list of what they stole/spent mixed in with what we had been spending. to get a copy of the police report was a huge hassle that I got a copy to them of as soon as I could after I found the ministry …I had been homeless, walking out of jail with nothing but the clothes on my back and an empty purse. Come to think of it, I had just purchased a brand new cell at Cricket before leaving Colorado Springs, no more than a week before leaving that was missing. The police stole it?? It was a month to month bill and Cricket said they could not trace it due to the month to month and not having a contract. I know it cost over $400.
6. Was Sean on the insurance policy or did he have his own valid car insurance policy at the time.
I am not sure. I do not think he was on my policy at the time. I don’t think so because I actually remember, at some point in time, an insurance company saying he did not have to be on it to drive a car I owned, that my policy covered other drivers. I can not even recall the name of the company at the time. I had always used USAA but I can no longer use them unless I pay my debt to them. I had a full platinum ccard with them and then had cosigned on Sean’s new Acura that had been stolen that time ..the day after Christmas and he had no ins ..which was weird too and not right. When you finance a car and do not pay your ins, they tag on that expensive ins until you buy more ..but both the car loan and the ins was through USAA ,,,I was never contacted about a late or non payment (apparently I get screwed everywhere I turn, Den …this is making me cry even more).
7. When you were stopped. Had he taken any drugs beforehand?
I do not know and have never asked. If I had to guess, I would say yes. He had a backpack full of them and was an addict, so I would think so. I can not be positive due to having no idea he had any with him and even had no idea he had started using again. The main reason for moving back to Houston, was because it was too hard on him to live in the same place with the same people around. Everywhere he looked where memories of using ..triggers, they call them. Although, I owuld have come up with another way if my stepmother did not sue me for my home, taking even the equity that came from my mother’s mother’s, my grandmother, Bebe’s, estate. Knowing his mother, my other grandmother, Honey, would never allow that to happen, I was served the paperwork THE WEEK after she passed away. Also refusing to pay for us to attend. A grandmother I spoke to daily for years and years and could not stand my stepmother. Honey did not pass up the more expensive dress, Pop, my grandfather who passed years before, did not work that hard to buy linda designer cars, homes, clothes, vacations and second homes to leave any of HIS homeless or hungry. In fact, part of the deal Travis made with pete was that his mother or Sean would never be homeless or hungry ..More specifically but that was one of the stipulations of the verbal contract between all parties for Travis to go live there. One of several stipulations that as of now, pete has broken.
8. Did the officer ask to search the car?
No. He TOLD us to step out of the car.
9. At what point did he read your rights and did you or Sean say anything about the drugs before that?
Our rights where never read. They do that in Taylor County when you get officially charged by a judge on a tv monitor ..Harris County does that also. I think the law in Texas is 24 hours to do that? Sean says 72 and he is normally
10. Are you going to try to call the attorney you mentioned the other day? Not Sean’s guy.
—
Hi.
11. What belongings did each of you have in the car?
Umm …Can that go back to the other question or do you mean in the Mustang at the time? At the time, Sean’s backpack, my little bag, Renny my little dog, and renny’s little bed that I carry in motels with his bowl, food and toy stuck in it, I had a new Keureg coffee pot I bought when we where waiting at the Walmart for the tires. I had mistakenly thought I had plenty of money on the Ace card yet all the while someone was wiping it out at the same time Some snacks, a portable battery charger because the connectors where loose and the battery kept going low, probably a few empty packages of headlights since the one kept going out (ended up being the wiring but we didn’t know or car at that point ..we just wanted to get to Houston after everything that had already happened and remember we replaced the light several times already and that was what the original stop was for …AND IT WAS NOT EVEN DARK YET AT THE TIME OF THE STOP ..it was just starting dusk) …
12. What was the time of day you were stopped ? I know you only had one headlight.
Dusk was just started. Maybe about 6 or 7 but closer to 6? It was just starting to get dark so not too late. Early.
13. Were you asked for a breathalyzer test?
No. Not once, ever. It never came up and we where never asked.
14. Did Sean have a blood test to check for drugs?
No. Not once, ever.
15. Did you have a blood test to check for drugs?
No. Not once, ever. We where never asked to take one. It never came up.
16. What were the charges initially filed for each of you?
Possession of a controlled substance – felony 3, paraphernalia – petty offense, possession of marijuana – petty offense.
I am 90% sure they never actually charged me with the expired license driving …
17. Were the charges amended at any point?
I am not sure. Possibly because the driving without a license is not on any newer paperwork and the marijuana charge is no longer showing on paperwork.
18. What is the timing of your arraignments?
Is that the tv screen hearing with the judge I told you about where they read you your rights and formally charge you? The next morning at the jail.
19. When did Sean sign the form saying you were not involved?
I just asked him and he says they never let him sign anything. They would not hear of it nor take it into account. They said it did not matter, I can and am still being charged because I was in the same location. It is legal for them to charge me and they where doing so. He tried insisting and argued even with them as much as he could but they cut him off at every attempt. He asked his court appointed attorney at his first meeting with him in jail and the attorney told him it would not make a difference.
20. Did each of you have your own court appointed attorney?
Yes. I asked to have the same one, but they refused to let us. I also tried debating this and they would not hear it.
21. What did your attorney’s advise you to do?
Take the pre-indictment deal or sit there for over a year to wait for a trial.
22. How much time did you spend in jail before being offered your probation?
Just at about three months, give or take a few days.
HI Liz,
23. What are the specific charges against you?
6 years adjudication (probation) for possession of heroin, between 1 and 10 grams, a class 3 felony in the state of Texas.. specifically 481.115(c) of the Texas statutes. Offense date was 6/09/12
24 What are the specific charges against Sean?
the exact same
25. Initial drug testing. Did either of you give hair, blood or urine samples after your arrest?
No.
the only blood test was just for dna id …they do that on all felons …ewww i HATE saying i am a felon …isn’t like i stole babies lol
25a If yes. What was found in the tests?
Invalid
26. Victims. Who are the victims of the crimes you and Sean have been charged with?
a. Have the victims been reimbursed for any money or items taken from them?
b. Have you been sued by any victims?
N/A ..unless you want to call me or us the victims
27. Are you required to submit a budget. Detailing how you manage your required payments and your personal expenses not related to probation?
yes, I have… specifically when I get behind on payments.
28. Please list the names and date ranges where you and Sean have been represented by legal counsel (court appointed or personally hired).
i will have to look this up. kory was my court appointed lawyer that would have been appointed to my case a few days after my arrest until the exact settlement date ..06/?/2012 (arrest date was 06/09/2012 through 09/06/2012. then he was personally hired kory again in 06/13/2014 to get an early release off my probation due to the awesome job offer in Montana and he only just recently sent me an email that he claims i can consider the letter i requested to terminate his employment on the case. i had 2 seperate appointed lawyers on this case this year for this same probation ..first kory, i thought was handling it from abilene then my court appt one in harris county …oh three because then the one in taylor county.
i will have too look up all the dates and such ..
then sean’s the first one would be the same as mine …then after that he had one in 2013 which was court appt from 07/2013 to 09/18/2013, then the two=three since? that will take some digging and i will finish the response on this question at some point. the last ones you may know as well as me ..
29. Are lawyers (court appointed or other) required to notify you, in writing, when you are no longer -I don’t know if they’re required. I can have Sean look up the specific code in Texas law to determine whether or not they are actually REQUIRED; however, I can say that they did not notify us when actual representation was terminated. just kory this last time due to the attorney’s office i contacted stating they needed it to handle the issue i called them for.
now that you ask, i thought the law required that?
30. Did you forget or didn’t know that your drivers license had expired?
sent
31. Did the officer ask you or Sean for permission to search your car?
No. Not once. Ever.
32. Was the drug paraphanelia sitting in plain sight in the car?
Of course not. I had NO idea he had anything on him. Everything was in Sean’s backpack.
33. Did the officer say what you were being taken into custody for?
The officer asked for my license, ran it, then asked for Sean’s, ran it. He then told …TOLD not asked… us to get out of the car, and proceeded to look through our personal belongings ..ie- My purse, Sean’s backpack. He then showed us the contents of Sean’s backpack and asked who’s etc. At that point neither of us would respond. Even if we are not read our rights, we know them. Sean took a couple of years Criminal Justice courses in college. He then prceeded to call in other officers and several cars and officers showed up. we where both sitting outside the car ..Me at ours and Sean at the officer’s. The original officer was alone until the point when he called others in. When asked at that point, when they where charging us, Sean told them everything in his backpack was his and I had no idea. They did not care, even when we protested several times and charged me the same.
34. Do you have case record numbers or know where the paperwork for your traffic stop, arrest and court proceedings?
No. When I was arrested this year in late spring, and Harris County dropped my case, Taylor County decided to MTR me. They pulled my probation, stating that even though I had no charges being arrested alone was a large enough violation to keep me in jail 3-4 months. It took that much time for me to turn down 5 offers to be thrown in SAFEP before they would reinstate my probation. During this time, Sean had to take over my financial obligations along with his own and could not pay my storage space the entire time …. While an awesome friend, tried to help me catch up payments and keep up with the new storage payments when I was released … It was just too much money to catch up everything that got behind for four months that at the end of the day there was no way to hold onto it. I lost the entire contents not long ago. All I struggled to afford to purchase and be blessed with for 3 years …making 8.50 an hour cooking burgers… An entire bedroom set, including a brand new matters and boxsprings, head and footboard, large dresser with a mirror, a long foldable worktable, a highback leather desk chair, my personal paperwork that included all my court documents, and so on and so on and so on. The only items I was able to bring to Houston where what fit packed into a car.
35. What is the process when you go in for review of your probation?
A review? As in at half time when it automatically gets put in front of a judge to be dropped if you have zero violations, and followed all terms of your probation? At that time I was sitting in Taylor County Jail being violated for a case Harris County dropped the charges on. I was only served the outcome after the fact with a huge NO… Due to the MTR I was sitting in jail for.
36. Do you know the specifics that determine how you result from a probation review?
Again, I am not sure if you are asking about a half time review, or if you are asking about the thing my Harris County probation officer turned me on to do in January, after my next probation appointment or even the meeting in Abilene that the Taylor County probation officer set up due to financial back due issues? .. Back due owed from when I was sitting in Taylor County Jail this summer.
For all of them, I have no idea. They have never volunteered any official determination documentation. As far as I gather, the last two are determined upon one probation officer or supervisors opinion alone. The half time review goes in front of a judge. Apparently without any appernece or information requested from or given by me. Ironically, or in addition to, I had a privately aquired attorney in ready paid to handle me being released early from probation since May/June of 2014, at 1/3rd time. This was done to be able to accept and take a job offer in Montana to be Office Manager for a dermatologist’s new office … That had the most awesome benefits and would have been the best possible situation for me to go I to. At this time, I am still struggling to get a decent paying full time position much less one like that, where a 2nd job would be an option not a necessity. The offer was for enough pay to cover all my bills to survive, including a cheap vehicle to get to and from work, a small place to live both would be an auto deduction from my paycheck, health insurance, salary instead of hourly, my fees paid to get my drivers license back, all fees paid to be declared bankruptcy to give me the opportunity to rebuild…incidentally, I would have just a year left to qualify for credit again including a mortgage, the town in Montana is also only a day’s drive from my 20 year old son …that I have not seen in just over 4 years now …We where even invited to all, myself and both my sons, stay with the doctor and his wife at their home, with their family for the holidays and even including all skiing together again ..All their treat …and so on and so on and so on. Now Taylor County has the audacity to threaten pulling my probation (MTR), violating me, for back owed payments that where due while I was in jail this last summer. I am not positive who this makes sense to or how it makes sense. They also have had issues with my work situations and not working 40 plus hours a week because having a full time reg position is a probation stipulation. I have been threatened to be violated for that also, since the loss of the Montana position that was due to not being released from my probation to relocate AND do not consider any volunteer for or help from the drug rehab ministry applicable towards employment time. The last I heard, if you assume and even insist I am a drug felon and an addict …only because the stuff was in my car and in my sons backpack while he is inisisting I have no clue…. wouldn’t it be a better option to have me spend every mi Ute I can at and or with the ministry? On my own, even …not even court ordered?! Are they serious? Unfortunately, they are.
Plus, I thought spending time in a drug rehab automatically shortened your probation? Then I have heard many people getting as much as a year off their probation for 3 months in a live in court ordered facility .. This was a 9 month non court ordered drug rehab program, that we both graduated from and I stayed in and lives for over a year and Sean did the same for almost the entire 3 years!
37. Talk about your ordeal this year when you were arrested in someone else’s car who had drugs.
38. Talk about the medical care you got in jail.
Good grief. What medical care?? Did you know I sat through 6 days of intake because that is how long it took me to be seen by medical to get approved for prescriptions that I even had on me. THE DOCTOR WOULD NOT EVEN APPROVE ME FOR MY HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE MEDS. Seriously. They put me on something for anxiety, very low grade, and they give that at lights out time then they called me every night around 2-3 am for a week to check my blood pressure and decided I did not need it.
I laid on a dirty concrete floor with only two long bench seats in the room and no beds, being served fake balo’gna and plastic cheese sandwiches and water with no cup out of a fountain at the toilet ..no soap and no shower, packed with people most the time ..so much so, that I did not get to sit on the built in concrete bench once and every person was within arms length laying down on the floor. SIX days. People get life flighted out of the wilderness for much less.
That should give a pretty good picture of any medical care.
39. Regressing. When you and Sean were in the motel room before your truck and belongings were stolen. What was
your knowledge about his drug problem at that time. Did you think he was undergoing treatment? Did you think he
stopped cold turkey? Did he tell you he was clean and didn’t have anything with him? Did you know he had drugs
with him?
By the time we were moving from Colorado to Houston everything had been brought to light about Sean’s addiction.
I knew that Sean was addicted to heroin and had been so on and off for a long time. It all started when he broke a few ribs playing hockey. He was over 18 and had his own insurance. I had NO idea what was going on … The doctor wrote him for some vicaden, but much later Sean told me he took all those and called the doctor the next am and said they hurt his stomach due to the Tylenol in it ..The doctor wrote him for 120 15 mg of roxycodone ..instant release Oxycodone ..by the end of that script, he as psychically addicted. The addiction went on from there …To the point he was seeing a pain specialist, a year later, for broken ribs. This eventually escalated to an heroin addiction.
We had discussed it at length and the struggles he had in Colorado staying clean, with all the triggers and people swamping him literally at
every turn, made his recovery difficult if not unlikely. So the plan … at least as far as he was concerned …
was to turn a page and start fresh in a new city. We talked about him going to treatment but he would always get defensive when the subject was brought up … I gathered that he was okay going to AA/NA meetings as soon as we found a place for him to attend in Houston. Directly before the move, I didn’t think to ask him if he was clean.
Honestly I assumed that he wouldn’t be dumb enough to carry drugs with him on a 1500 mile road trip, ESPECIALLY
since he didn’t have a valid drivers license and would be doing most of the driving. He never lied to me, the
subject just never was brought up … I guess its my fault, I had been so busy with moving that I wasn’t paying as
close attention to him as I should have been.
40. After you’ve been put into the police car, what happens to you?
After the mug shots and finger printing. I guess you get jail clothes. You are allowed one phone call. If you can
call Perry Mason and speak to Della Street you will probably get off. If you are a normal person in a strange
town, who do you call? IF you are down on your luck, who do you call?
Liz, how did this particular county jail treat you?
Well … thats it … you’ve answered your question. After you’ve been placed into the police car, the cop drives
you to the facility where they take pictures and run your fingerprints through their nationwide database system.
The process is different in different jails, but between the time you enter the jail and the time you’re housed
you’ll do the following things: mug shots and fingerprints, meet with a nurse for basic medical history and blood
pressure tests, “dressing in” where you get clothes and other necessities like dental care and soap. In a big
county like Harris County here in Houston, you’ll have your first court appearance before you get housed, which is where you can enter a plea, charges are formally put on you and you’ll hear about your bail amount … in a smaller facility like Taylor County, bail is already set and that first appearance wont be for a while. If you’re
just passing through a town, its certainly hard to get bail … after all, bail is a promise to appear in court on a certain day, and if you’re just passing through, that means you just have to pass right on back for court … you
don’t know anyone in town, and have no ties so its hard for a judge to accept that you’ll be back, so bail is usually higher for people from out of town. You hit the nail on the head about the bondsmen … its next to impossible to secure bail from a bondsman because they’re putting money up for bail on a person who might be hundreds of miles away the next day, which is too risky a move for most of them.
Individuals who are broke will go through that very thing. If you cannot afford bail, you do not get out of jail … its that simple.
As far as treatment … I could make this question into an entire book. The second you are arrested your rights disappear. I has mistakenly thought ..and had been told my entire life that you are innocent until proven guilty ..Good luck on that one ..Most cases never come close to that point. You take a plea to get out of jail because you either do not get bail/bond, or it is too much money or even that a bondsman will not bond you. It isn’t as if most criminals or drug addicts have any assets to put up against it, and definitely most do not have any credit left to speak of …If you are extremely fortunate you may have a family member or friend that will ..So, how many people are willing to loose their jobs, home, car, children and so on to sit in jail and wait about a year for a trial. Speedy trial? I got my first pre indictment deal over 3 months after I was arrested.
You’re welcome,
Liz
