It is a rainy Saturday in the St. Louis area. Soon I will be heading west. I have two graduation celebrations to attend in the Kansas City area this weekend. One is for my niece Sydney who is both graduating from college and getting her start in the nursing field. The other celebration is for my wife’s sister’s daughter who is graduating from high school.
I have a few clients in the Kansas City area and I always want to make arrangements to visit with them while I am there. Time never seems to allow for it.
Right now I am over at a local cigar store having a smoke while my wife puts the final touches on what she needs to get done before we leave. When I was single I could pack for a trip to Russia in about an hour. Now a trip to Kansas City for two days seems a bit more complicated. But at least I am not required to participate in the packing. My wife is good about that.
We have to stop at the Montgomery County jail on the way to Kansas City. I have a new case there. And let me tell you Montgomery County’s criminal justice system is a mess right now.
For quite a while Montgomery County has had difficulty in finding anybody really qualified to serve as Prosecuting Attorney. I don’t know all of the background but it is a part time job that pays almost nothing and nobody really wants to do it because they have to live in Montgomery County. That’s all I know about it. There have been a couple of people who have been appointed to fill the position on a temporary basis but they don’t last.
Right now, as I understand it, the job is being tended to by somebody who is a prosecutor in another county. I have been there for the past few lawdays on other cases and have never seen the same person answering the docket two times in a row.
So, when this nice lady hired me to represent her son on Friday morning I was unable to get in touch with a lawyer at the Montgomery County prosecutor’s office to talk about a bond reduction. I was told that the woman handling the job would not be back until Tuesday of next week. Great!
That does nothing to help get this boy out of jail before then. The judge won’t talk to me unless I have talked to the prosecutor. And of course the court has set a bond for this boy but it is too high for his parents to make. He had his high school graduation last night and he had to stay on the Montgomery County jail for it. I know, based on the charges against him, that there was no reason to arrest him right before his graduation other than to mess with him. Cops do that kind of stuff. He isn’t charged with any violent offense. He is accused of tampering with a motor vehicle. Big deal. That hardly makes him a risk.
I am going to stop and visit with him on the way to Kansas City. I have not yet met him. I need to know more about his cases. He also has a stealing case. Both of the cases are felonies. He stands the risk of going to the penitentiary. Still, did he need to be kept in jail for his high school graduation? I think not.
Small towns and small rural counties are tough places for people who get in trouble. People like to talk and it does not take long for a young man or woman to develop a reputation as a trouble maker. Once that happens the cops never let up on them. Many of them might as well move out of the county and start over. I am sure that many of my clients who are reading this know exactly what I mean.
Okay, enough of that. I am going to finish my cigar, go pick up my wife and head out for some good food, drink and company. I’m goin’ to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come!
