His Name Is D

As I recall, the date was June 29, 2007. I found myself in a Hamilton County courtroom, having agreed to provide transportation and support to a young 23 year old man who was to appear before the judge to explain his actions associated with violating his community control. His name is D.

Going into the courtroom that day had been traumatic for D. He was certain that because of his actions he would be sentenced to go to prison. This story probably has roots early in his childhood. D's mother was just 15 when he was born. She was probably not expecting a child, nor it is unlikely she was equipped to be a mother. At some point, D was placed on foster homes. How many was not clear, but by the time his mother was able to parent him again, she was single, the mother of two additional children, when D was 9 and 11. As psychologists are now telling us, the age of transition from childhood to adolescence for young men is a critical time where positive male role models are essential to the formation of character of the individual. From D's behavior, it is pretty clear that the positive role models were missing from his life. While this part of the story has not yet emerged, this assertion on my part could be presumptive. Well, I digress.

D was living with his girlfriend of nearly 6 years, and had been reluctant to go to the courthouse for the fated appearance before the judge. His girlfriend had refused to drive him to the courthouse. He had no driver's license, and the bus ride to town would take well over an hour for at trip that in a regular automobile would take less than 30 minutes. As he earlier had indicated to his mother, with whom my wife and I are friends, that he wanted to turn the corner to face up to the issues he had created for himself, I had agreed to provide him transportation. As I arrived at his apartment, I was struck with the observation of the neighborhood. The apartment was one of number of project row houses. What was surprising to me was this housing project was near the freeway that circles the Cincinnati area, I-275, and far away from the usual location of the project houses in our city. And their condition seemed marginally inhabitable.

And of course, there are children from this relationship. This is another story that I will get to later.

In the courtroom D and I met the public defender attorney that had been assigned to his case. He called us out into the hall to discuss the approach that they needed to take with the judge. In summary, D needed to plead guilty or no contest to the charge that he violated his community control agreement by leaving the Talbert drug rehab house. D countered with the reason he left was that it wasn't helping him where he needed help, and he was away from his children. As a result he felt that he wasn't doing anything wrong. The attorney, Mr. Noe, indicated that because he had walked away from the house, and did not complete the program, there was no choice but to bring him back to court and the judge's decision regarding his violation of community control. D demonstrated a high level of 'attitude', and I confronted his on this behavior. My advice was to take a strong pill of humility in front of the judge. And knowing that he had turned to address his issues with integrity, I asked the attorney if I could speak on D's behalf when the judge called him forward... We'll see, Mr. Noe responded.

Well, this impromptu request has set in motion a full court press as D's mentor. You see, the judge, in the face of recommendations from the parole officer and the public prosecutor in charge of the case to send D to prison, let me speak on D's behalf. Now, nearly 90 days later, I don't remember exactly what I said, but I know it was sufficiently impactful to cause the judge to give D a continuance of 90 days to get employment and begin to payout his court costs. I, in that moment, committed to support D in achieving this goal.

Thus, this is the beginning of the story that started to be written and that I will attempt to tell that day, June 29, 2007. I have learned a lot, and the learning deserves to be recorded and shared.

And so it began.