I’m in the process of destroying my old legal files. Though there’s no specific Ohio law on how long one should hold on to files . . . I’ve decided five years is long enough.
This time, though, I’m not destroying files of my criminal defendants, but the files of children and parents I represented in abuse, neglect, and dependency cases in Cuyahoga County’s Juvenile Court — i.e. poor, black, inner-city folks who got caught up in the system.
A couple of years ago, I was going through the files of my criminal defendants and even though only three of my clients went to jail on my watch — all of them were in jail — on other charges.
It was a little disheartening — but it woke me up and got me the hell out of public service.
So, today, I’m destroying the ‘yellow’ files — my color coding system for juvenile cases. So, I start flipping through the files and start looking up some of my clients and parents of my clients (thank god for public records) to see where they are now.
The answer: jail.
Again? I’m thinking I have a curse. People I touch in the justice system end up in jail. The father of one of my clients — who at the time I met him was in jail for having 120 rocks of crack cocaine — in a housing project — a definite no,no. He beat that rap and vowed not to put the housing of his child and the child’s mother in jeopardy again. Well, things didn’t quite have a happy ending. This father is in prison again — this time for aggravated robbery with a gun.
It turns out, since I left his family’s life, he’s been indicted about seven times for various escalating crimes — drugs, robbery, guns.
And don’t think the curse ends here. I just saw an ex-husband of one of my clients on the state’s most wanted list.
There are days when I miss some aspects of Ohio. One thing I don’t miss is my law practice. I don’t know what it will take to change the lives of the poorer members of our society — but it didn’t work for me — or them — on an individual level.
foleydog
Vortigern
