Few of you may know, that I went to jail in early 2005.  The charges were “domestic dispute  with a misdemeanor of assault   I went to jail that night for about 16 hours.  It was by far one of the strangest things I have ever encountered.  I don’t talk about it as a respect to the other party, who really loves his privacy on such matters.  Regardless, I really do try and keep a good mindset about all things.  And though the jail thing was hairy, I endured it.  Upon seeing a court evaluator, I asked “what is the most the court will ask me to do?”  He said community service and classes on domestic violence and drug and alcohol abuse.  I got the info and got in right away.  I found a community art gallery and donated my time to the cause. I wrote this piece two days out of jail… but I had to wait 7 months for a hearing with a judge.  In the mean time, I did everything the was going to ask me to… ONLY I DID IT BEFORE THEY ASKED.

At the end of the trial ( there were people on the jury, who had totally bought a pizza from me a Papa Murphy’s)  where I was found guilty, the judge talked to me off the record, wherein I shared this piece of writing.

She was impressed with what I had done, and said I could have my record expunged after 4 years, if no other incidence.

There has been no other incidence.  I have been single for 7 years.  That was my last serious relationship.  It ended weird  and now I have a mark on my record… why? Why haven’t I had it expunged?  Because I would rather put petrol in my car, and buy a six pack then pay yet another $85 dollars into the system I found myself indebted to.

How did I win?  Well I guess I cut a lot of drama out of my life after all of that, and yet, at moments knowing what I know; I find myself still fearing the law.  Fuck me.

Your Honor,

I come before you a humble and humiliated part of society

my brain screams

“girls like me, don’t belong in jail”

but I compromised what allows me to be free

My reality, assault in the fourth degree

a fight

domestically

Luckily not another tragedy

just a young woman

with too much to drink

a tendency to over think

and a bottle of rage packed inside

These things I over looked

came back to bite

and now I know what a night in jail is like

I can’t remember the succession in which it all happened

Only I know

I don’t want it to happen again

I don’t want a record

or a label like criminal

Since that day

I pay for my actions

Two hundred and fifty

of my cash

goes to bail I owe

Not to mention the

broken double pane window

My brain gets lost when it thinks

of these court costs

My humiliation is evident at my job

with this broken nose

and black eye

No way to disguise.

Humbled as a daughter

who had to call home from a holding cell

didn’t go over so well 2000 miles away.

I’ve been waiting to talk to Your Honor

for weeks, just trying to think what I could do

for Deschutes County to drop these charges against me.

I confess I am willing to do anything

I can to lessen the charge

counseling or deferment

I don’t know yet

I ask your Honor for help

so that I can contain the stress

that made me burst outward

with violence

It makes no sense to me,

how I could act  irrationally

but then again

it was that dark part

that comes out with that depressing friend called liquor

it gets that range pumping quicker

until your mind goes black

and you are ready to attack your lover

The marks on my face

disgrace me

Public Humility

evidence of the darkness that exists inside all of us

once let loose

I am only here in Bend temporarily until March 10th

Then I send myself back to middle America

I swear it’s my word and your judgement

Your Honor, I trust what you decide, will fit the crime.

I appreciate you, for allowing me, this time with you.

I am ready to do what you ask me to.