Juvenile Crimes - Chapter 15
Storm Clouds Forming...
Coquille, Oregon, November 1995 continued…
The 14-year-old pedophile/rapist was in custody, thankfully. He wasn’t processed in time for court today so his first appearance in Juvenile Court would be the next morning, giving me time to file the initial charges with the best evidence I could glean from the police report. Rape 1, sodomy 1, sex abuse 1…it was fuckin’ ugly. The perp was not given bail as a juvenile – he was remanded to juvenile detention. The victims were safe for the time being. There was much more to investigate and figure out with this case. If it went to trial, it would be extremely traumatic for everybody involved.
Fucking Mondays…
I made my way through the D.A.’s office on my way home for lunch. I wanted to make sure my jury instructions were being prepped for me for the next day’s trial. I also wanted to take the temperature after the weekend – it was the same toward me even though I could feel another upbeat energy in the office. I asked Sandy, who was completely normal to cold, what was going on today.
“Chuck’s leaving,” Sandy said without emotion. “Blanchett and him just came out of Peter’s office and made the announcement. Chuck got hired by the State Department of Justice and put in his two weeks. He’s done by the end of the month.”
“Whoa, didn’t see that coming,” I replied.
“I did,” Sandy said, again without much feeling. “He’s been looking for the right job to move on from here for a while now. This is the one he wanted.”
“Okay. Good for him,” I said sincerely.
“Not too good for you, though,” Sandy said. “He carries a huge caseload. It’ll be at least a month or more before they can fill his spot.” She looked at me and said, “You guys are gonna be swamped.”
“Great,” I said sarcastically, “like I didn’t already have enough shit to shovel.”
Sandy laughed. “You’re lucky you’re not over here or you’d get a lot more of it.” She was referring to adult court.
“Swell,” I said with a grin. “Do you have my jury instructions for tomorrow yet?” I asked while changing the topic.
“Yup,” Sandy replied as she dug into a pile of papers that were stacked and stapled for various cases. “Here you go.” She handed me the pages of suggested jury instructions for the court.
“Thanks Sandy,” I said. “I got another nasty one that came in. I’m going to give Peter a heads-up.”
I walked over to Peter’s office. He invited me in as soon as I got to his door.
“You’ve heard the news about Chuck, right?” Peter asked me.
“Yeah, just now,” I replied. “How long until you can find a replacement?”
“That ain’t gonna happen,” Peter said. “Chuck is way more skilled than anybody we’ll find willing to take the job. It’s a big loss for the office.”
“Shit,” I said flatly. “What’s the plan?”
“Well, whoever we hire will have to come in as a rookie,” Peter said. “We don’t have the budget to hire someone who’s actually comparable. Chuck’s going on his fourth year here and he’s second behind Keutzer for the major felony work.”
“I guess Ted and Kevin will be happy to move up, right?”
“I hope so because we’ll be finding out soon enough,” Peter said. “So, what brings you over to this side of the building?”
“I got a new gnarly one that just came in,” I said. “14-year-old perping his little sisters. Looks like rape, sodomy…the works.”
“I hope this one’s not another turnip?”
“No,” I chuckled, “this creep can tell time and tie his own shoes.”
“Any other good news for me today?” Peter said with friendly sarcasm.
“That’s it for now,” I replied with a smile, “but the day’s still young.”
“You’re racking up quite a load already,” Peter said. “Chuck leaving doesn’t help right now…but we’ll figure it out, one at a time. We’ll give you some help from over here if you need it.”
“You have no idea how glad I am to hear that,” I said with gratitude.
I walked home for lunch with Tami. It wasn’t entirely happy.
“What the fuck is wrong with your crazy fucking cat?” Tami demanded as soon as I stepped inside.
“Beezy? What’d he do?” I asked.
“That little bastard keeps messing with Tigger,” she said with angst. “All Tigger wants to do is explore a little and then lay down and sleep. All your cat wants to do is to fuck around with Tigger.”
“Is he being mean to Tigger?”
“Not really, just aggressive playing.”
“No hissing and scratching?”
“Not from Beezy, but Tigger will look at him and hiss to try to keep him away.”
“Okay,” I said. “We can try to keep them separated more until they get used to each other,” I offered.
“I keep trying, but it’s totally fucking annoying, you know?” Tami said. “If I lock Beezy up, he starts moaning and crying like he’s being tortured or something, but if I let him out, he’s an aggressive little fucker!”
“Okay. Well, I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s gonna take a while for them to get adjusted, but it’ll happen.”
After I got back to my office following lunch, I received an emotional phone call from a CPS (Child Protective Services) worker who had previously worked on a case involving Freddy Nelson’s family. That news got my full attention. I’ll call her Leslie.
“Thank you for taking my call,” Leslie began after we introduced ourselves.
“No, thank you for reaching out to me,” I replied. “I planned on talking to your department, but you beat me to it.”
“I’ve been involved with that family off and on for a few years now, so when I heard about Freddy’s arrest, I knew I had to talk to you right away,” Leslie said with urgency. “There is so much more going on with that family.”