The Verdict Part 1

Chapter 283

The Verdict

Part 1

 

My grandmother stood up, but the Judge told her to sit down before she blows a gasket, said. “Well that was unexpected, but I had the same thoughts the moment I saw everything. Now then are we done showing videos that are so graphically violent and if so I would like two girls to come back in since they have been in there for nearly an hour.” My grandmother didn’t say anything because now she was to mad to speak as she shot daggers at her own lawyer.

Dad said. “We have no more videos, but we would like it very much if we kept what we saw to ourselves. The outside world doesn’t need to know, how real this threat is. It is bad enough that every paper and every news channel across the US is showing what these people are capable of. Causing everyone to lock their doors and hide in their basements hoping that the world isn’t coming to an end.

“I would also like our real names stricken off the record as well as these tapes be classified under the act we have been granted so we may work in secrecy. I would also like Mr. Shepherd and Doris shepherd to sign a contract with the courts that what was shown here will never be discussed and if they do so, they will be fined severely and placed in jail without bail until they agree never to discuss these tapes and why our names have been stricken off the record.”

My grandmother said No and so did my father, but the Judge and my grandmother’s lawyer agreed. The Judge said. “Not a problem, considering these would only give people nightmares and would consider them fiction anyway, but I agree with you, and I am ordering that your real names be removed from the record. However, I think if anyone was stupid enough to believe an old woman and angry father that want only to ruin you and everyone that knows you. I doubt they will believe them unless they saw these tapes. So let them be stupid and let them deal with the consequences when they find nothing to back up their story.

“Bailiff if you would be so kind as to take the tapes, and burn them right here in the middle of the courtroom until there is nothing left. Mrs. Doris Shepherd if you made a copy of these tapes you will be asked to do likewise, for if I find out that you still have them. You will be arrested for breaking the law. Since these tapes are considered classified and anyone that sees them will join you in jail for it.”

She said. “You can’t do that; they are considered my personal property.”

The Judge smiled. “Personal property that you stole from Mr. Carrion and his government task force, and plan to use against them in a court of law. That can get you ten to life in prison. I doubt you will live that long and while you're in there. You will not have any visitation rights. So you either destroy them or face charges if I find you have these tapes in your possession. Do I make myself clear?” 

She nodded. “Fine, but this isn’t over by long shot.”

The Judge gave a heavy sigh, said. “God I wish it was, but your right. We still have to listen to your son Jim and his anger towards his son Nate, and his wife. God help us all. Because the law is the law, where every man and woman has the right to be heard by the court. So lets us be done with it. Mr. Shepherd, you may begin when your daughters take their seats. Please don’t make me regret this more than I already do.”

My sisters took a seats next to my grandmother asking if they missed anything. My father said. “Yes, you missed the best part of our case thanks to your grandmother. This will be a slam dunk and we will walk out of here with a fist full of cash and you will never have to see your mother or brothers ever again.”

Dad said. “Really, let’s test that theory.” He whispered over to my caseworker and our lawyer and they quickly got ready for anything my father may use against us. While the bailiff attended too his task by destroying all the videos watching pull out the tape and break it with his pocket knife and added lighter fluid to the mess he created inside a metal waste bucket and opened a window so the smoke can filter out.

My father stood and said. “Judge Griffin I no longer have a lawyer. I fired him because he did a piss poor job of defending me. So I am representing myself. So forgive me I am not a learned man and I mash my words together. I shall be brief, for my mother has already paved the way for me in helping me with my case. First off, I would like to show you what has happened to me and my two daughters the moment that spawn of evil, and the very essence of immorality and abomination was placed with the Rothwell’s…”

The Judge banged his gavel several times. “Strike that from the record, we have agreed that none of their real names will be mentioned. And strike his everything Mr. Shepherd just said. There will be no name calling in my courtroom. Do I make myself clear if you can not do so your case against them will be thrown out?”

My father growled angrily said. “Why? I didn’t agree to not use their real names. To me by doing so would mean I was referring to people that are not in this courtroom.”

The Judge said. “I do not care if you didn’t agree. Instead, I will fine you 25 dollars no make that 100 dollars every time I have to strike their real names not be used and the same goes for name calling. If you can’t pay that amount you will spend 1 day in jail for every 100 dollars you owe me. So let’s start again.” 

He said. “Fine my I sit, I have bum leg and I can not walk or stand on it very long without considerable pain in which they have caused me?”

The Judge nodded and my father smiled. “Well as I was saying when “that boy” entered there home. We had agreed that there would be no visitation rights, but my mother like always butted in where she wasn’t wanted by breaking that ruling. She as I understand it went to the hospital with the knowledge that she wasn’t allowed to see him or him to make contact by any means. I have obtained a file from the caseworker at that time and the hospital stating that my mother was breaking the law by playing a nurse so she can stay with the boy in question.”

He handed his first file to the bailiff allowing him to distribute copies to each of the parties. “In the file, you will note that my mother was a nurse early on in life working for a doctor in the town in which she lives in. She has no medical degree of any kind or training; she never went to school beyond high school if that. Yet she was allowed to be his nurse, and do everything that it entails, but this isn’t the first time she has taking it upon herself to butt into my life, and making decision for me and my wife.

“My so-called wife and I used to see eye to eye. We were like two peas in a pod, and we believed in the same things when it came to raising our children which was why I married her. The boy was always a trouble maker, disrespectful to me and to her, and no matter how much we disciplined him or his brother. We could not rein them in.

“They were tearing our family apart, so we had no choice to but place him in foster care in hopes of fixing the problem. However, my mother took it upon herself to encourage the state to allow the boy back into our home only making matters worst; we would get phone calls from the school, and from our church where this boy, would tell lies about me and my wife and the things that took place in our home that never happened. 

“Again we tried to discipline him and his brother, but he refused to obey. And once again we had to place him back into the system. And once again my mother would butt in hoping to convinced my wife and me that boy should be allowed to live with us not be a ward of the state. Our church teaches us that family is the most important thing. Yet it doesn’t help you when trying to raise a trouble, maker and a liar. Nor does it teach us how to stop people like her from meddling in our lives.

“Everything was fine when this boy was never home with us. Our daughters were angels and his brother was controllable and didn’t have as many behavior problems and only need to be disciplined like all boys his age do. But when his brother is home, it’s like living in hell. Every day for the past 12 years was like a nightmare because we were always having to battle with him and his grandmother. Things only got worst when he met the heathens known as the Downings.” Watching the Judge eyebrows raise when he said the word heathens, but he let it go because it wasn’t a bad word necessarily, because other members of a different faith used it.

“We tried everything to remove him from them after we found out that they did not believe in God, nor were they LDS like our family was. And once again my mother butted in where she wasn’t wanted. Making things more difficult by helping them raise him in a none Christian home, as they put forth lies that we were unfit parents. That she had my two daughters removed from my home, and letting those heathens take my other son without our permission as she spirited him away right under our very noses. So she could be alone with this, to tell us what she has done and how she was going to bring the law down upon our heads, because of the lies boy was telling her and those people he was with.

“We did everything right by these boys, and all we have gotten was people telling us what bad parents we are. The boy ran away for us during the time we had him and was gone for weeks making not only me and his mother worry what kind of trouble he was in or the lies he was spreading against us. He hurt the Downings who were forced to leave the state because they felt they could not control him and felt it best not take him with them. Which you yourself ruled in our favor knowing the best place for him was to be placed back into the system, and heed our advice that he be not be allowed any visitation rights, or allowed to see or contact his grandmother and his brother. 

“Yet the moment my grandmother was contacted within a couple of weeks after you had made the ruling. She broke the law and from that moment on we were back to square one once again because she refused to stop meddling in our affairs. Not only that she had told me and my wife that she didn’t care how we were raising our children and she has asked these people help her in this struggle by pressuring my wife to leave me and change her thinking on how best to raise our children.

“I did what any husband would do begging the State to honor our wish that this boy never be allowed to see grandmother ever again and his brother. We even went to their home in Highland and tried to work out an agreement with them, but instead, they lashed out at us, telling us what the boy and his grandmother has told them, which was the same lies we have been struggling with all these years. That we are not fit to be parents and we abuse our children; which is a lie. We have only done what we felt was needed to have a happy environment for all of us.

“Like I said the moment this boy entered their home, our lives were turned upside down once again. My wife and I could not allow them to be foster parents, they were teaching immorality, they were teaching false doctrine, and they had destroyed any hope we might have had to get our son to obey our teachings and family standers… or the very fundamentals of our religion. Once again my mother could not be stopped, even though we have told her on several occasions that she need let us decided what was best for our children.

“Yet she refused to listen so she began by working on my wife, hoping that she could get her to change her mind and appealed to her needs and wants; that perhaps that it would be best to find a way to reach our son and have him home again. She used trickery and talked to other ward members in our church, begging my wife to reconsider the idea of a complete family. In a matter of a few months, my wife was convinced that perhaps that she was right, but what we didn’t know was what our son was being taught, and I use that word loosely for he will never be my son; and for good reason.

“She agreed that it was time to bring him home after my grandmother convinced his caseworker at the time. I am not sure which one being as they are dime a dozen and have been so many over the years and I can only recall two maybe three that were ever on our side. My mother worked the system to benefit her, so she could see him anytime she wanted. Then she worked on my wife, appealing to her that she could have all her children home, now that he was older, and has been refined to where he wasn’t a problem child. So we were told and believed.

“Yet the very day he came to visit us for the first time in a long while. He was anything but. We tried to convince him that this type of behavior is unacceptable and we were not going to stand for it. He lashed out on us and beat me and my wife to a bloody pulp; with such skill that I have only wittiness in the army where I was stationed that he was being trained as a killer to inflict pain upon us and anyone that tries to help him.

“For the first time, we were afraid for our very lives as he tried to kill us after we had tried to confront him to why he was running away from us. Then finding out someone had called the cops and we were placed in handcuffs and taken to the hospital and treated like criminals for defending ourselves and charged for physical and sexual abuse, because the boy in question was found naked in the field where we found him and had numerous cuts on his arms, chest, and legs. That he caused using a knife he had stolen from our home and used it on himself in heat of rage and anger that we had never seen before.

“Soon after we were released and we approached his foster parents in hopes of setting the record straight in regards the charges we were facing hoping they would see reason. Only to be attacked by Mr. Rothwell and his family.”

The Judge banged his gavel said. “Strike that name from the records let courts charge Mr. Shepherd 100 dollars, now then please go on I am very interested in this story of yours Mr. Shepherd. So you were saying Mr. Carrion and his family attacked you and your wife?”

My father said giving a heavy sigh. “Yes, your honor for no reason what’s so ever…”

Dad smiled. “May I stop Mr. Shepherd so that I may defend myself and my family?”

 
The Judge said. “No, let's hear him out; and then you can. I am letting him get all out of his system, for I believe giving a fair hearing, so everyone will get a chance to speak.” He popped a couple of aspirins into his mouth setting the bottle in front him telling my father to please continue asking if had proof of these injuries, watching him had the bailiff pictures and hospital billing statement and another file from his stack.