Continue with onX Maps
Sign in with Facebook
New and Experienced climbers over 50 ##24
|
My heart is kind of heavy this morning and so I will leave it here and maybe delete it later. I have a friend in San quinton prison serving a 19 to life sentence and he was just turned down for a second time and given another five years. In 2002 I was introduced to Eric who was in County Jail awaiting his trial. I had let it be known that I wanted to be a penpal to someone serving a long sentence – – kind of as a spiritual service. So I was fixed up with Eric, who was “the only guilty man in County Jail“. That is because Eric was not a bullshitter, and he made no attempt to gloss over his crime. What he had done, under the worst circumstances, was to attack a young woman in the film room at a movie theater. She worked there and he had let himself in, stoned, and passed out on the floor. She startled him when she walked in from a break. There was a tussle and fairly quickly he let her go with no real injury and made his way home and passed out under some bushes on the acreage in his backyard. When he woke up, his parents told him that the police were looking for him for rape, and he had no recollection of that, but immediately walked to the police station, and turn himself in . He sat in County Jail for a full year and saw a public defender one time. Although it was adjudicated as a sex crime, neither the victim nor Eric ever said there was a rape. Eric had a wife and three kids and up until that time no kind of record. But he was so filled with remorse that he waved his right to a trial and checked off pages and pages of crimes – – agreed to all of them, except for rape. this is the point where I met Eric. So there was no trial but there was a sentencing where both the judge and the victim said “you don’t have to do this.“ But Eric didn’t change his mind and so he was sentenced and sent to Vacaville and then ultimately I think he’s been in five different prisons. I have hundreds of his letters that I think should be a book of self discovery and amends. And he has never complained not one time about his treatment in prison or even during 18 months in solitary for his own protection. Through all of this I have said “Eric, you’re a fool “. I have never met him in person but now the prison is allowing zoom calls starting in June. Eric wrote to me a few weeks ago and said “my hair and my beard are now white.“ I don’t know why that just killed me. Eric’s father, brother, sister have all died and his mother is very close to death. He now has a grandchild. He’s never met and his son who needs him. I guess it should be added that early in our friendship. I wanted to check out his story so I had his complete police file and all court records and Hearings sent to me as well as all the evidence and it all checked out. The story is exactly as he told me. Eric‘s attorney wrote to me this morning and said he will not be coming up for another parole hearing for a minimum of three years. She’s appalled at how this has gone. She’s offered some services for free but most have a steep price tag. I thought I was doing Eric a big favor by being his friend. It’s absolutely the reverse of that. He called me when I was standing at Jeremy‘s bedside agonizing over organ donation. I literally heard my cell phone rang as I was sobbing next to my sons bed, and it was Eric to talk me through it. It’s happened countless times. He’s really one of the finest men I have ever known and I will stay true to my commitment of being his friend however, long this goes on. Honestly I don’t know how to be a friend right now. I don’t have one cheerful word to say. What does this have to do with Climbing? Nothing. |
|
That's a stunning story, Lori, I hope you'll leave it up. Sometimes the only thing to do is sadness. Just cry. Hugs from afar, Helen |
|
Lori, very sorry about this situation and for Eric—only a small number of offenders should be locked up for life, and it definitely seems that he isn’t one of them. Still, as someone who spent my career as a public defender ( though in a different state, with different policies), something, actually several things, don’t seem right about the story here. I know that you have looked through the entire court record, and I don’t doubt that, but the sentence seems totally inordinate for the facts that you described and for for someone with no record, especially without a rape conviction (from what you wrote he didn’t have a trial and didn’t plea to a rape—so couldn’t then have a rape conviction if that is accurate). And, I don’t understand at all, what you mean by he “checked off pages and pages of crimes”—that just doesn’t make any legal sense. Nor does the “judge and victim saying ‘you don’t have to do this”. I know that you are very upset and understand that this likely isn’t helping, but still I see some big red flags here. |
Alan Rubinwrote: I think your right Alan, more to the story. Perhaps a lot more. |
|
Criminal sob stories rarely get much sympathy traction. 19 years to life for passing out in a bush after a small tussle with a female. hmmm. Way more here for sure, and I only watch TV. |
Alan Rubinwrote: Thank you so much Alan. Of course there is way more to the story and I probably shouldn’t have posted this because there’s not the room or the interest to write a tome on it. I guess I could pull out the hugely thick file that I have and re-read it all. What I recall about the pages of crimes were numbered descriptions of all the things he did, each one having a spot for him to check and put his initials – – and there were at least several pages, and there were Eric‘s initials and check marks in pencil next to every one but rape. Eric only wanted to make sure that it was understood. He had not raped her, but he did not want to “Nitpick“ over the dozens of other charges. I was shocked that he laid down without a whimper, and gave himself up to a life sentence. What the hell was his public defender thinking? What Eric said, from the beginning, was that he was so horrified by what he did, and he felt compelled to take the consequences however heavy. He had been raised a very conservative Christian in a poor rural family. He knew he had hurt his victim and terrified her, and he said over and over he never wanted her to worry that she would encounter him again. He also couldn’t bear to put his family through the expense of a trial, and he just wanted to take his lumps. So it actually was the judge and the victim on the day of sentencing who said “you don’t have to do this. You could have a trial. You could fight some of these charges”. There were a lot of tears in that courtroom that day, because Eric wasn’t fighting and no one had seen anything like that, apparently. What astonished me was the quality of representation he had, and the determination of the prosecuting attorney to get him for everything possible. No one talked about Eric‘s state of mind at the time nor did he bother to tell them. The day before his crime his father had attempted to rape his wife, and she was demanding that Eric do something about it. He didn’t know how to confront his father about such a terrible thing. No one cared that Eric had taken a handful of pills just before his crime and was wanting to kill himself with an overdose. But it’s clear from the records, and Eric’s own testimony, that when the victim stumbled into the film room and screamed he got her in a chokehold. She thought she was certainly going to be raped or die. She was later taken to the hospital and she had a burst blood vessel in her eye, which I understand means he had that chokehold pretty damn tight. In all it was a couple of minutes of fighting on that film room floor when he said he realized what the hell he was doing and let her go and ran out of the theater, but it took him almost a year after that to remember all that. It was only after Eric was in prison for about five years, and started to see inmates who had committed murders released at the seven year mark that he began to think maybe the whole justice system isn’t fair, and he shouldn’t have thrown his freedom away. Nevertheless, he has spent 20+ years as an ideal inmate with never a write up, always helping others and usually promoted to positions of responsibility. He’s attended every class provided and spent several years acquiring a skill in HVAC and had jobs waiting this. Is it not mine to carry but only to figure out how to be his friend as I promised. He has certainly been mine . And while I’m out climbing tomorrow, he’ll be sitting in San Quintin believing that his next parole date is coming up in a year. The excerpt from his attorney is below.  I guess to my point, both of my sons got themselves in trouble, and when they did, I personally hired an attorney. It wasn’t to spoil them. It was to make sure they didn’t get swallowed up in the system. It wasn’t to prevent their going to jail because they both did, but just to make sure someone had their behinds. |
|
Lori- I don’t wish to comment about something I know nothing about. But one thing I have learned over the years is this. It’s much better to have expert attorneys then to be innocent. |
|
I've always wondered why some women fall for men in prison who are total strangers. It's a sad phenomenon. |
FrankPSwrote: Well, that is a whole other ball of wax. I promised that I would not get involved with Eric, but at the 10 year mark there was a minute there where we talked about it and he said “really bad idea, Lori. You deserve happiness now, and not later”. But during that time, I got to know some of the women who had husbands or boyfriends in prison and some who had met their boyfriends in prison, and it was just a miserable experience for everyone. Some had young children and were waiting for their husbands to be released, and if he got a hold of a contraband cell phone or got written up for any reason, he could wind up an extra year or longer in prison . These poor women suffered endlessly. Worse still while I was waiting in line to visit a prisoner. It seemed like everyone in front and behind me was seeing the person for the 10th time on a parole violation. If these guys get out of prison and they don’t get a job right away they’re right back where they started. And no one wants to hire a parolee. For that reason, I hired five parolees and they all were wonderful employees. Really the best I ever had. |
|
Got it in two today. We hired quite a few at the restaurant I worked at for 20 years. One of them did a road rage murder and didn't come back to work for obvious reasons. Another got murdered, the kid (scary Larry) who went in for armed robbery and kidnapping was scareing everyone so chef asked me to fire him. Nice way to pass the buck since chef was the one who hired him.. anyways Scary Larry asked me if I could lay him off instead of firing him to keep him in good with his parole officer. I was happy to oblige.. none of them were wonderful people.... Most were troubled souls and all of them were shifty and many were down right shit heads. |
Nick Goldsmithwrote: All this gets me thinking of the many jobsites I've been on where its basically the carpenters duty to treat all the helpers like ignorant convicts all day every day. The thing about it is many of the carpenters were the real convicts. Some of the bosses were convicts too, hoping to run guys off after getting a week or two out of the n00bs. Isn't life wonderful? |
|
I talked to a tile setter on a job once who hired guys out of 'day labor'. I asked him how that worked out for him. He said that he had good luck with actually getting guys who could get the work done, but they never lasted long. After a few days they always had an excuse of why they couldn't continue working for him, or they would just stop showing up, "And that's the good part" he said. He never had to tell anyone that he had run out of work for them and they always parted on good terms with the workers apologizing to him. |
|
Perhaps I just got lucky. I hired a guy straight out of prison, tattooed from the top of his head down to his toes. I used to laugh and tell him I needed to make sure all his tattoos were all spelled right. The one on his neck was “I ain’t mad atcha”. My intention was just to do a good deed and give him a job for seven days. He wore long sleeves to work during that time and was so damn helpful to everyone. On the seventh day, I got a sheepish knock on the door, and my entire staff came in and said “can we keep him?” We kept him, and he never missed a day of work. I thought he would at best be a file clerk, but instead he grabbed the reins and learned the most difficult legal job in my office, and he excelled at it. He was one of the best. He was an employee over 3 years. But I got to see firsthand the contributing factors to making a criminal. His father recently died, and his mother was desperate for money to pay the mortgage. He knew how to get money and she had no shame about asking him. I couldn’t match in salary what he could get on the street. And he would sit in my office and cry. And it became pretty evident that not only the stress but his past living had created a heart problem and he was in heart failure in his early 30s. One day his family called and asked if I would go check on him and I did , he was dead. I miss his gangster car that bobbed up and down. I certainly miss the culture clash – – him teaching me rap, my sharing Bob Dylan.  |
|
I had a wonderful morning with Bob today. We are working on a new route that’s over my head but still within reach. I have been thinking about the crux moves on this route for weeks and my only goal for today was to work out one tiny sequence. There’s a transition from the flakes on the right onto the face and it’s kind of a blind move. I just needed to do it over and over until I could get the concept in my bones. There’s another crux move right after that and then one at the very top that we haven’t quite worked out. I suspect given the weather , we won’t be back till next season. Up until recently I depended on Bob to figure out those hard moves and sequences but he has a different body and longer reach and lately I’m feeling more confident about figuring out what works for me. I still need a lot more strength to be able to pull up on some of these moves and not sink in the saddle.   |
|
Looks great Lori |
James Barnettwrote: Thank you James. Kid in a candy store. I think this is the hardest route I’ve ever attempted to climb. But it’s sure been a fun experience trying. On our way there this morning we walked right past this little family of bighorn sheep. They were so casual and unafraid.    |
Nick Goldsmithwrote: In the late 60's I worked in Danbury, CT where there is a Federal Correctional "Institution". Primarily for the elite who ran afoul of federal law. Our shop did heat treating of metals and the worst job was the molten salt pots. Once we had an inmate, Tony, from the FCI. Middle aged guy. Did an excellent job. When his time was up, the foreman was so impressed he offered Tony a full time job. Tony declined. The following day, after his release, Tony stopped by to say thanks and goodbye. The he got into his limo with a uniformed driver! |
|
Interesting you’re talking about corrections. I’ve worked in corrections for 23 years. Ran the education centre at medium security prison for eight years then the Adelaide Women’s prison for a bit (that was interesting). |
|
How bad is drug use down there Carl? We are in the middle of some crazy times here in the US from meth to fentanyl to just plain old weed it seems everyone is on something. |
|
I climbed hard yesterday and woke up OK this morning. This is really big news. I am still looking at the ingredients that could help me extend this show. I realize that for most climbers here health and fueling are natural and intuitive. I have to continually redirect my focus to the fact that for 65 years I was not an athlete and I was mostly sedentary. Suddenly… Big surprise… My body wasn’t equipped to be a climber. So I’ve probably put more study into this than most. I continue to work with a registered dietitian, Ben, who is also a type one diabetic and an athlete. He’s enormously patient with me and the fact that I just don’t get it. He just wants me to grab the basics before tackling anything more sophisticated: calories, protein, hydration, and electrolytes. It’s just some basic targets which I should have grasped right away. I had a huge ah-hah moment the day I was just desolate with fatigue 2 weeks ago and Ben added up the calories from the prior day of climbing which came to about 1000. I thought I had eaten a lot. I thought that Marie calendars turkey dinner was more than enough afterwards. I also couldn’t relate how I felt that day with what I had eaten the day before. So I wandered around the house like a zombie in tears and ready to give up—not understanding that I was completely depleted and dehydrated. Ben has pulled me back from the brink a number of times now. I guess all those eat and drink urges aren’t as strong in old people. I know I am never going to climb a big wall. But I also didn’t think that at the age of close to 70 I would be attempting a 5.11. So what I’m learning is as “a person of a certain age who wants to do certain things“ I have to drink when I don’t feel like drinking and eat when I don’t feel like eating and count grams of protein. The other thing I have added is sleep and I watch that like a hawk. And finally breath work. I learned the 4-7-8 breathing exercise and it’s simple and it really makes a difference. Tony’s solution to all of life‘s problems is to eat more pasta. Actually, pasta and olive oil are really good calls but just to make sure that there’s enough meat in the sauce. So he’s delighted to pull out his pots and pans now and cook away.
|
