Life Imitates Life

This is Monday's entry.

Every once in a while something happens on the national stage that brings light to something that I have to deal with on a day to day basis. That thing today was the sentencing of Michael Vick. The judge had some range within which he could sentence Mr. Vick. What this sentence would ultimately be depended, in part, on what Mr. Vick did with himself between his last court date and this court date.

Mr. Vick knew this. He had to. Why do I say that? Well, he had some very good attorneys working for him. They undoubtedly instructed him that even though he had already been convicted, he had not yet been sentenced. He should not throw in the towel because his actions could still influence the sentence.

So what did he do? Well, among other things, he smoked some pot. He was told to remain drug-free, and he smoked some pot. The story or two I saw today about this expressed bewilderment that he would smoke pot when it could literally add months to his prison time.

Welcome to my world.

"You are charged with possession of marijuana. If you are clean on your court date, you will be able to get a deferred prosecution and have the case dismissed. If you do not, then you will get a conviction." Defendant then smokes pot.

"You have violated your probation and your case has been continued for one month. If you are clean by then, you will just have your probation modified. If you are not, then your prison sentence will be activated and you will do two years in prison." Defendant smokes pot.

"Your court date has been continued for three weeks. If you test positive, Social Services is going to take your child away from you. If you test negative, you will be able to keep your child." Defendant smokes pot.

None of the above are exaggerations or hypothetical situations. I have seen them all happen. I don't know if it says more about the addiction of some drugs or the stupidity of criminal defendants, but it sure happens all the time.