The Hamilton County Justice Center
Sitting in the “holding tank” at the Hamilton County Justice Center really gave me a new perspective of society. I’m sure my ex-wife and her family felt some satisfaction knowing that they were able to send me to jail rather than let me speak to my daughters on the phone. Something they will never understand about me is that I am a student of life. Everything is a learning experience for me. I was not nervous because I did not do anything wrong. I’ve always been someone who can blend in with the crowd. It seemed like most of the people in the holding tank that night knew each other. Someone new would walk in and at least one guy would say “what did they get you for this time?” Nobody knew me.
I could tell that people were curious to find out why a white male in a dress shirt and suit pants was in jail on a Friday evening. One guy finally said, “What are you in here for?” and I told him my ex-wife filed telecommunication harassment charges against me. He said, “You can’t be letting that b#*@h bait you in like that. What did you say?” I told him I didn’t say anything, I just left messages. He asked me what kind of messages I left and I told him that I didn’t leave anything vulgar, mostly text messages asking her to let me know if the girls were ok. The room erupted. “Text messages!?!?” It became apparent from the reaction of the people, who seemed to have considerably more criminal experience than me, that it was not that common to be arrested for sending text messages to check on the welfare of your children. It was also apparent that, no matter what color you are or how much money you have; no one can understand why a mother would have a father arrested for sending text messages to check on the welfare of the children.
It wasn’t long before I was sharing stories about my experiences in dealing with crooked judges and Dr. Edward J Connor. It was almost like telling ghost stories around the campfire and everyone was giving their undivided attention. I told them about getting a judge to recuse himself. I told them how I was punished for not playing by the “rules” of the system. They were surprised to hear the story of how I used my Blackberry to record the video of Dearborn County police officer harassing me in the courthouse. I told them about the different motions that I filed while representing myself. Many of the people who were facing serious jail time were wishing me luck. No one could understand why my ex-wife, Judge Humphrey, and Dr. Connor worked so hard to deprive two little girls of a father.
I was in the Justice Center for over three hours. The arresting officer was apologetic about my situation. He told me how my ex-wife was complaining about my website so I explained to him what the site was about and he readily accepted my business card with the web address. While I was in line to be frisked, I was making jokes about John Belushi’s character in the Blues Brothers. I found out that you are not allowed to smile when they take your mug shot. I told the man that I didn’t want to look like Ryan O’Neil or Gary Busey if my mug shot was on TV. The guy found that pretty amusing. The woman scanning my fingerprints told me that she wished I could look at one of the computers because it was acting up. My new friend Taylor, who spent the better part of his adult life in jail, was worried that I would try to represent myself in the criminal court because it was different from a civil court. He was relieved when I told him that I already had an attorney. No matter whom I talked to, everyone was horrified that a mother and maternal grandparents would have a father arrested to punish him for trying to call his children.