[school assignment: not perfect b/c lack of time]
He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, Guy Griffin Sr. said Tuesday morning in the Yolo County Court in Woodland.
Griffin was arrested October 13th, 2002 for insurance fraud. Five years later, he was arrested again for violating his probation charges.
Father of two children and one of the many unemployed citizens in California, Griffin has been unemployed for the past three years “because of the court trials,” according to his testimony.
Prior to his second arrest in 2007, Griffin had been working for three years at a trucking company stationed in the Sacramento area.
“I was on probation to protect my family and had court dates every month; my boss was getting frustrated that I had to leave so often,” Griffin said.
According to Griffin’s testimony, he was already on probation due to the insurance fraud felony and a misdemeanor would violate that. But due to the fact that this new arrest in 2007 would not end well, his previous Public Defender, Hilary Davis, told him “’if you disagree to go to trial, we can get it down to a misdemeanor and even though that will violate your probation, everything will end, this will all be over.’”
“Everything” included the District Attorneys’ office threatening to arrest Griffin’s wife, which would ultimately lead to Child Protection Services taking his children as well, while Griffin himself was in holding.
He took the deal.
Now, three years later, Griffin is still paying for the consequences and also dealing with an extra issue.
His uncle Quinton Griffin, 60, has a severe seizure disorder and requires full assistance all of the time. Also, because the seizures cause short-term memory loss, he forgets to take his medication, which therefore leads to more seizures and more memory loss.
The vicious cycle can only end with in-home care on a regular basis. Guy Griffin has been taking care of his uncle since October of 2009, after Quinton’s doctor, John Dahmen, said that if the seizures occurred regularly, he could die.
Griffin stated that prior to yesterday’s hearing, he was looking into agencies that could take care of his uncle while he was at work, now that he has finally found a job at another trucking company located in Fresno. But more problems ensued.
The transportation agency takes 21-30 days to qualify a candidate, too long for Mr. Quinton to wait in going to the doctor, and the in-home care agency costs $100 per week. This would not be much of an issue now that Griffin has secured a job, but the job requires him to cross state lines, which under probation, he can’t do without being arrested in another state.
Griffin asked that he not be incarcerated for the sake of his family and especially his uncle, who needs all of the help he can get, and also because with this new job, he can pay off his restitution payments as well.
The judge, Paul Richardson, seemingly unfazed by this information, said that Griffin has been giving excuses to the court and has not even fulfilled his end of the bargain.
Required in his probation, other than attending all court dates, was completing 90 days of community service. After three years of unemployment, he completed only 10 days.
Griffin’s current public defender, Ron Johnson, made the argument that although his community service had not been completed, he would be able to provide his restitution payment creating revenue rather than adding more expense to the state through incarceration.
However, due to this lack of initiative, the Judge Richardson gave him 30 days to figure out something for his uncle, Quinton, and then sentenced him to 28 months in jail.
