"You don't know what it's like in here! You don't have any idea why I'm here! It's not all my fault! I was set up!"
That was my brother screaming to me over the phone from Sacramento County Jail. He is there on a DEA hold. He was arrested Friday, April 12, 2013. They broke the door down and arrested him and are holding him without bail. He is being treated as some kind of drug kingpin. My brother has been smoking marijuana for more than 40 years.
Of course I have no idea what he is going through. I have been a law abiding citizen since August 2, 1985. That was one day after I was arrested and charged with two felonies-Attempted Grand Larceny and Conspiracy and a gross misdemeanor of having burglary tools. My two friends -Tom, who was 19 and John, who was 17 (I was 21 at the time)- and I went to a famous used car lot (think Cal Worthington) on Kietzke Lane in Reno, after drinking all night long at the MGM Grand Casino. They were going to show me how to hot wire a car. I suggested we use my car, but John insisted that we would not get in trouble even if we were caught because his family was friends with the owner. We didn't count on a stakeout across the street. Apparently there had been a rash of car thefts in the city. John was right, the owner refused to press charges on any of us, but it was an election year and having detectives work overtime trying to catch car thieves costs a lot of money. Money that the District Attorney had to account for, especially since she was up for re-election. The judge, though, realized we were just hapless kids on liquid courage. He put us, Tom and I, on probation for a year (John was remanded to the custody of his mom because he was 17) and said that if we stayed out of trouble, he would drop the charges and we would walk away with one misdemeanor charge of Tampering with a Vehicle. We did stay out of trouble, paid a $300 fine and I have not seen the inside of a jail cell since those initial 18 hours. Unfortunately, the FBI didn't get wind of the dropped charges and they were on my record until April 2012, when I finally was able to get them changed. Which is probably why I couldn't get a job for three years. It's why I was fired from the U.S. Census. But all that is behind me and that is where it will stay.
No, I don't know what my brother is going through because I don't break the law. Although I think marijuana ought to be legal, it isn't, so I don't buy and sell or grow it. I don't want to see the inside of a jail cell. Ever. Again.
As for my brother, since he has been busted for the same crime two times before and has an outstanding warrant out for him in Oregon, the inside of a jail cell and soon the inside of a prison cell might be all he'll see.
Because when you dance with the devil, there'll be hell to pay.
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