Sunday, July 10, 2011

To be continued


To be perfectly honest, I didn’t anticipate that the Omnibus Hearing on Friday would be quite so interesting.  I had dressed carefully in a suit and even styled my hair using a hairagami to make a bun.  I love those things by the way; super-fast and easy even for the fashion inept!  Well I managed to get out of the house on time (que milagro), and Ashley didn’t complain too much about being left with Gisela.  The hearing was scheduled to start at 9 am, and I was in the area by 8:30.  Since I had been unable to find any information regarding the location of the hearing, I stopped at the jail.  After the guards at the desk couldn’t help me, they told me to go through security to speak with the clerk of courts for that building as she would have that information.  As I waited in line, I quickly removed any items on my person containing metal parts and placed them in my purse to go through the x-ray machine.  I walked through and set off the detector which I had never done in all the time I had come to this same building to visit Alberto.  I removed my shoes thinking the buckles might be the issue and stepped through again. BEEP BEEP BEEP!  I took off my bracelets next to walk through again. BEEP BEEP BEEP!  ¡Chin!  I came back looking confused and the guard asked if I had anything in my hair or any other body jewelry that was not gold or silver.  I couldn’t think of what would be causing the detector to go off so the guard used the wand to discover the source.  It was my hair, more specifically it was the hairagami that was folded into my hair to create the bun that looked so nice.  After discovering the source, I pulled it out of my hair, set it down, and walked through without a hitch.  That was 10 minutes of my time out the window for trying to look nice. 

So after I got through security, I approached the clerk of court to get the information.  As I was talking to her I had pulled another hair binder from my purse and was securing my hair in a bun without the use of the dratted hairagami.  I had to spell out Alberto’s full name for her and was informed that court was being held in the Government Center across the street and that it would be on the 17th floor.  Great!  I rushed out of the jail and moved with surprising speed towards the Government Center.  I found where I needed to be and discovered I would have to go through security again which took up another 10 minutes because I had several people in front of me.  The guard on crowd control was surprisingly chipper, and I managed to get cleared without taking everything off again.  After getting into the elevator and cruising up to the 17th floor, I was greeted by emptiness.  There was not a single person to be found on this floor until an attorney emerged for another elevator.  I found the courtroom for the Judge assigned to the hearing and sat down to wait for Brian.  He said he was going to be late since he had another hearing in another building that had started at 8:30.  I did not speak to anyone, nor did anyone speak to me when the interesting portion of the hearing started.

The prosecutor began to speak with a lady who was perched on her chair with an enormous stack of paper and numerous files on her lap.  I took her for a case manager or paralegal until that point.  She turned out to be the victim’s advocate and they were talking about our case.  The prosecutor wanted to know her opinion and what she knew about this case.  As they continued conversing back in forth, I fought to maintain a disinterested attitude and pretended to be overly interested in my cell phone.  My ears were burning by this point at the casual way they discussed the possible outcomes.  The prosecutor said he didn’t think they would be able to get a conviction and that he didn’t want to go to trial since there wasn’t any physical evidence against this defendant.  Despite all that he stated he was going to offer 74 months when the maximum sentence allowable was 85 months.  I think my heart stopped beating momentarily when he said ‘I don’t think he’ll be convicted’!  I was typing this information into an email I would be sending to Brian as calmly as possible.  The prosecutor asked if the victim was contacted and if he was willing to go through with this, and she replied that she had spoken to him.  Apparently Nemesio and Tecla are still together and they are very near to where I live.  When I heard the advocate mention Sabrina was also still in Minnesota, my heart dropped into my stomach.  Sabrina is the niece of Tecla and she accused Alberto of attempted kidnapping for the purpose of violation.  This was a particularly damming accusation since she was a minor at the time with Alberto being an adult, but she picked the wrong individual out of the whole group to accuse of that.  This portion is irrelevant because that particular accusation is not on the list of charges against Alberto at this time.

I sat through a hearing regarding why a first void urine test should not be admissible in court for a DWI charge.    I don’t have much sympathy for the people who drive while intoxicated and well just leave it at that.  Brian arrived moments after that hearing ended and pulled the prosecutor out into the hallway.  When they reentered the courtroom, Brian nodded at me and proceeded to the Judge’s chambers with the prosecutor.  What in the world is going on here?  About 15 minutes later Brian returned and we left the courtroom.  He told me as we were walking down the hall that we had requested a continuance because he did not yet have a copy of the discovery.  We continued talking and I mentioned to him what I had overheard the prosecutor say and how they had discussed everything.  He did not want to give me an official opinion until he had seen the discovery, but he was relatively sure that they couldn’t have known my identity so this was not an act.  Brian also said that we were lucky in other respects because the Judge assigned to our case was a reasonable man and as a newer Judge he was much less likely to be cynical.  We have the rescheduled Omnibus hearing on July 26th so I’m hoping I can be there even though I’m scheduled for jury duty that week.  ¡Híjole!

A few hours later, Brian emailed me scanned copies of the discovery and I would be lying if I said that I was not profoundly disturbed by what I read.  You see, included within the Discovery was a copy of Nemesio’s medical records.  I always knew there was something off about Caña, but for him to be capable of this even with the help of a friend is chilling.  We’re going to stop right there on this section.  Moving on!

I got Alberto’s suitcase by FedEx today.  I sorted through all the pockets and threw all the clothing in my washing pile since I don’t know when it was last cleaned and it all smelled like sneaker rubber from the shoes he had in there.  I found toothpaste with no toothbrush, dental floss picks, lotion, deodorant and cologne, a broken cellphone with charger, his bus ticket, and a dog-eared envelope.  I recognized the envelope as one I had sent him some cards when Rosa left the country, and the cards were still in there!  It made me smile to see that he had brought those cards with him to Cuidad Juarez.  Dios mío como lo extraño.

I don’t have much else to report so I’ll call it a night.  Dulces sueños a todos!



“The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.”
Unknown

  

Ciao


Interesting Spanish words/phrases from this post:
Que milagro:  A miracle, what a miracle
¡Chin!:  Bummer, Darn it
¡Híjole!:  Holy smokes
Dulces sueños a todos:  Sweet dreams everyone!
Dios mío como lo extraño:  My God how I miss him

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