-=> Quoting Tom Rightmer to Neal Godfrey <=-
 NG>                                        My Wife and I are in the
 NG> middle of coordinating something with the County Attorney's
 NG> Victim/Witness Advocates office now where other parents who have
 TR> 
 TR> I think that you are 100% correct, you are channeling what would have
 TR> been negative into something that is positive. What would have been
 TR> rage and hurt is now help for someone else. Telling your story also
 TR> helps to end these kinds of crime or at least begin to become harsh
 TR> with them. 
Thanks for reaffirming that for me. While I think that it is HIGHLY 
DOUBTFUL that it would end these types of offenses HOPEFULLY it will
serve as a platform for some legislation that has some teeth and perhaps
maybe even getting rid of some laws that are entirely INEFFECTIVE. My
attitude now basically is "Scumbags and Perverts, take notice, life as you
know it has just come to an end"
 TR> Reference your arrest on restoring the peace with a rifle, I
 TR> understand your confusion and the thoughts about the screwy system. I
 TR> can tell you what would have probably happened in my neck of the woods.
 TR> The officer probably would have told you to please be patient, that he
 TR> had to arrest you, but he would attempt to get a ruling from the
Very true, when the PD showed up on the scene, I had a strong feeling that I
was going to be arrested. And I do give them credit during the arrest as 
well, almost immediately after the response by the PD, the local TV news 
station showed up and the officers took great pains to conceal me from the 
media and save me some potential embarrassment, plus they held off on the
handcuffing until I got down to the wagon without cuffs thus saving my family 
from seeing me being led out of my home handcuffed. In short they treated
me more like a special guest than a criminal suspect.
 TR> District Attorney quickly. There are some charges that must be filed,
 TR> and only certain authorities can decline the charge. In other words,
 TR> the officer would not have the choice or make the decision here.
Very understandable, the only thing that bothered me was that the charge was
dropped on July 11,1997 and it took until February 13,1998 for my attorney
to get an answer from the County Attorney's office. And this was after
NUMEROUS phone calls. Needless to say I felt like my life was in limbo for
10 months. I do intend on talking to the County Attorney about that issue,
I can accept the fact that mistakes do get made, we're all human, hopefully
someone else won't have to endure the same anguish, plus that is how
improvements are made by learning from ones mistakes.
 TR> Chances here are that the officer would have a decline to file in about
 TR> an hour with the circumstances you gave. The booking log would indicate
 TR> the original charge and a "D.A. Whoever Declined to File - Date and
 TR> Time".  Some obvious matters here would require a court hearing and an
I wish that had been the case in my circumstance.
 TR> official court ruling. This is not bad in many cases, it puts the
 TR> matter to rest in an official manner. If I killed a suspect in the line
 TR> of duty, I would want an official ruling of Justifiable Homicide by the
 TR> appropriate authority. As a result, many of these cases involving the
 TR> good guys is positive, not negative. A serious event without an
 TR> official ruling of some sort can come back to haunt the good guy in the
 TR> future. In conclusion, I would simply say that would might be viewed as
 TR> negative by some is actually positive for the good guy. Does this make
 TR> any sense? 
That is how I look at my situation as well, IMHO if they truly wanted to 
bring the matter forward I truly believe that they would have been able to
secure an indictment against me. Hopefully I made some sense. I couldn't 
agree with you more Tom on your conclusion. I feel thoroughly vindicated.
And I pray to the God of my understanding that I am never again placed in 
that type of situation. As I had told the arresting officer the last thing
that I would ever want to do is to shoot a kid. A few days after my arrest
some of the key teenagers involved in the incident came by to apologize for
any trouble that they caused. That SHOCKED me like you wouldn't believe!!!
 TR> ... Why can't women remember to put the seat back up?
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Definitely worth a couple of chuckles 
Take Care and Stay Safe
Neal
... I wanted to be a pirate."  They cheered in unison "Congratulations!"
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