Neither fish nor fowl
in Yuba 'Drug Court'
MARYSVILLE 6/14/02 (YSN) -- Many expect to see sharply defined issues when they go to court: situations in black and white, guilty or not guilty, right or wrong, jail or freedom.
What they often encounter instead is a lot of "neither fish nor fowl." One 30-minute slice out of a random day in Yuba County Superior Court Judge David Wasilenko’s courtroom serves as a sample.
When a spectator dropped in at 10:10 a.m. a conversation was underway between Wasilenko on his bench a 50-ish defendant rumbling in a deep voice at the counsel table.
The Defendant S was there for having violated his probation and drug diversion program requirements, but in Wasilenko’s opinion had made sufficient amends. All he needed was to have the hold on his driver's license back removed and he’d be back in business. But there was this problem
"I have this other matter in Sutter County. It says from 1997. I called the DMV, but they said it was Sutter,” S told Wasilenko said.
"But I have your DMV record here and there's nothing on it," the judge said. "I'll take break, go to my chambers and call DMV and headquarters in Sacramento and get to the bottom of it. You go sit down and wait."
The license-less S was in limbo.
Meanwhile, in the jury box there sat a heroin-thin lady, signaling to a friend in the gallery for a cigaret, which she had zip chance of getting.
The female bailiff rose to remind everyone that communications, even silent ones, were illegal.
The lady in the jury box was probably 40, but could pass for 100 from all the tweaking she'd obviously done. The judge was in the process of remanding her, but she wasn't feeling well.
"She's to sick to go to jail," the friend told the bailiff.
The bailiff led the tweaker back to the holding cell where she apparently laid down sick.
After returning, the bailiff wised up the friend. The jail probably wouldn’t accept the thin woman the judge had already indicated would be remanded.
"The jail's not going to take her In cases like this they give them OR (a release on one’s “own recognizance”) and tell them to get themselves to the hospital and pay their own medical bills," the bailiff told the lady's friend.
Poor lady, there was no room at the inn for her. Poor judge, he had got a defendant he can't un-remand. Poor jail, they might have to put down their donuts, get off their lazy butts and care for a prisoner.
While this was going on, there was a third drama taking place. An attractive blond was seated with a female friend in the gallery. She'd VOP'd her drug diversion for the third time and her continued freedom was at the total discretion of the judge. He had the power to commit her immediately to state prison for a period of eight to 18 months, or so a defense attorney was telling her.
"But I've got a two-year-old daughter," the woman said, half-serious, half-giggling.
"This is no laughing matter," the woman lawyer said sternly. "Better start writing down telephone numbers for your friend to call to find someone to take your daughter. Or the judge can have the cops do take the little girl. It can happen," the lawyer snapped her fingers, “like that.”
The defendant started getting out a pen.
A commotion broke out among the clerks and the lawyer moved away. At the same time a domestic violence counselor from the local safe-haven household for abused women came out of the judge’s chambers and went straight to the woman writing down telephone numbers. She was all smiles.
"No problem. Don't worry about a thing," she said, thumbs up. "The judge is going to put it over for two weeks. He doesn’t know what to do with you. He won’t do anything. Everything's OK."
So there things stood, the DMV and Sutter County were saying the opposite, and a driver's license was hanging out there in paperwork purgatory. A sick woman was prostrate a holding cell with no place to go, in or out. And a young mother had a daughter or a prison term, or both, or neither to worry about.
By then it was time for the spectator to move on to another courtroom where a school psychologist had even bigger problems to think about.
in Yuba 'Drug Court'
MARYSVILLE 6/14/02 (YSN) -- Many expect to see sharply defined issues when they go to court: situations in black and white, guilty or not guilty, right or wrong, jail or freedom.
What they often encounter instead is a lot of "neither fish nor fowl." One 30-minute slice out of a random day in Yuba County Superior Court Judge David Wasilenko’s courtroom serves as a sample.
When a spectator dropped in at 10:10 a.m. a conversation was underway between Wasilenko on his bench a 50-ish defendant rumbling in a deep voice at the counsel table.
The Defendant S was there for having violated his probation and drug diversion program requirements, but in Wasilenko’s opinion had made sufficient amends. All he needed was to have the hold on his driver's license back removed and he’d be back in business. But there was this problem
"I have this other matter in Sutter County. It says from 1997. I called the DMV, but they said it was Sutter,” S told Wasilenko said.
"But I have your DMV record here and there's nothing on it," the judge said. "I'll take break, go to my chambers and call DMV and headquarters in Sacramento and get to the bottom of it. You go sit down and wait."
The license-less S was in limbo.
Meanwhile, in the jury box there sat a heroin-thin lady, signaling to a friend in the gallery for a cigaret, which she had zip chance of getting.
The female bailiff rose to remind everyone that communications, even silent ones, were illegal.
The lady in the jury box was probably 40, but could pass for 100 from all the tweaking she'd obviously done. The judge was in the process of remanding her, but she wasn't feeling well.
"She's to sick to go to jail," the friend told the bailiff.
The bailiff led the tweaker back to the holding cell where she apparently laid down sick.
After returning, the bailiff wised up the friend. The jail probably wouldn’t accept the thin woman the judge had already indicated would be remanded.
"The jail's not going to take her In cases like this they give them OR (a release on one’s “own recognizance”) and tell them to get themselves to the hospital and pay their own medical bills," the bailiff told the lady's friend.
Poor lady, there was no room at the inn for her. Poor judge, he had got a defendant he can't un-remand. Poor jail, they might have to put down their donuts, get off their lazy butts and care for a prisoner.
While this was going on, there was a third drama taking place. An attractive blond was seated with a female friend in the gallery. She'd VOP'd her drug diversion for the third time and her continued freedom was at the total discretion of the judge. He had the power to commit her immediately to state prison for a period of eight to 18 months, or so a defense attorney was telling her.
"But I've got a two-year-old daughter," the woman said, half-serious, half-giggling.
"This is no laughing matter," the woman lawyer said sternly. "Better start writing down telephone numbers for your friend to call to find someone to take your daughter. Or the judge can have the cops do take the little girl. It can happen," the lawyer snapped her fingers, “like that.”
The defendant started getting out a pen.
A commotion broke out among the clerks and the lawyer moved away. At the same time a domestic violence counselor from the local safe-haven household for abused women came out of the judge’s chambers and went straight to the woman writing down telephone numbers. She was all smiles.
"No problem. Don't worry about a thing," she said, thumbs up. "The judge is going to put it over for two weeks. He doesn’t know what to do with you. He won’t do anything. Everything's OK."
So there things stood, the DMV and Sutter County were saying the opposite, and a driver's license was hanging out there in paperwork purgatory. A sick woman was prostrate a holding cell with no place to go, in or out. And a young mother had a daughter or a prison term, or both, or neither to worry about.
By then it was time for the spectator to move on to another courtroom where a school psychologist had even bigger problems to think about.
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