The Tale
It wasn't the best of ideas to select Nashville as our base, but Karina was terrified to stay in Alabama, so staying in a beautiful historic hotel and driving to Tuscumbia didn't seem like such a bad idea when we thought of it. We were soon to get a reality check.
It was a long drive, but the rental car, a Lincoln Navigator, made us feel like soldiers in a tank charging on our rescue mission. We arrived at the law office which was located near the courthouse and did not notice the 'other' building that took up a city block fenced and surrounded with barbed wire.
Karina and I went into the office and Mark came out of the board room to greet us and immediately took us to meet the others. Abe introduced himself. He had two sons who practised law with their father, the Toronto lawyer was there, a public relations person from Montgomery, a secretary, two MBI executives, and Robin our ally. My chair was beside Robin and Karina found a chair behind me. Bail/bond discussions started immediately and it sounded as if nothing had been accomplished over the past two hours. I offered all of our real estate as bond, which included and house and farm in Florida and 5 properties in Canada, a total of seven properties. It represented a lot of money. Bail would be $250,000 -- and I don't know where that was to come from, as apparently this D&O policy that I heard of from Greg, "was not there", piped up one of the MBI execs.
They broke for lunch. The Toronto lawyer had come with home made cookies. Abe was happy that someone travelled with "their own baked goods". My heart had been severed in half a week ago, and there was cheerful chit-chat about cookies! It is a difficult truth that very few people are sensitive to the world of emotion or capable of walking in the shoes of others. I hope that I will learn from my experience and not fail in the future and promise to be aware of the needs of others during a crisis. What a terrible selfish world man has created.
The Florida properties had been purchased through an Alabama firm, but the Canadian property titles were documented by the Toronto lawyer. He had been billing for the past 20 years, and the properties had been purchased over a period of 5 years. Nothing was in organized files. He worked out of a briefcase full of scraps of papers and stickies, and became confused over the mess he had put on the boardroom table. It was an embarrassing display of incompetence. Abe was getting more animated and it was clear he had an ego and dramatic personality, perhaps that is what is needed for the courtroom, but I felt uncomfortable. To help clarify the confusion, I drew a map of the 5 Canadian properties, and listed the fire numbers for each property -- we just needed to associate the proper numbered company with each address. Shockingly difficult for the Toronto lawyer. Abe was also increasing the drama in the room and I was already becoming nervous about legal representation. In my opinion, Abe was not quick on his feet to grasp concepts and do mental gymnastics, elements that I feel are important if one is engaged in intellectual arguments. Robin and I rolled our eyes.
At three o'clock Karina and I were on our way to see Greg. The jail was across the street. Mark and one of Abe's son's came with us, and we were told that we should be prepared, 'it was not a nice place'. I won't waste precious typing time on descriptive passages. The other day, I realized that I don't actually need to blog for an entire year to get my story out into the universe forever. I think I shall go with the old Latvian saying 'the more you squeeze shit, the more it smells' and this whole story stinks to begin with.
I could hear Greg's voice as he moved down the hall towards the room we had been given for the meeting. He came in wearing an orange jumpsuit. His expensive Church shoes had the laces removed, something they do in jail so that you cant hang yourself. He looked like a tramp, unshaven as all of his familiar grooming tools were not available. He was fastidious and showered twice a day when at home and I knew this jail experience and the shock of the past week was hard on him. He had lost about 15 pounds, so had I, so had Natalie, so had Karina. We were all thrilled with the prison diet!
Greg was handcuffed, his loop of arm rose above my head like threading a needle. We hugged.
We made some jokes -- I told him he looked great in orange, the colour suited him. I reviewed all of the things Robin had told me about the indictment and how shallow it was. Let me just say, those are very weak words after a week in jail and facing the thought that someone had the power to accuse and convince a grand jury to indict you for $100,000 million securities fraud. I warned Greg that his enemy was out to either kill him physically, or at the very least assassinate his character. I also said that tomorrow he had to be brave and put his shoulders back and smile. There would be media. Greg told us that this jail in Tuscumbia was worse than Cook County. There were 7 men in a 10x14 cell -- our horse stalls in Canada were bigger. There were three bunk beds so one guy had to sleep on the floor and last night they all were killing cockroaches. I made a note to contact the ACLU when I got a chance. I am pretty sure that animal shelters are better than the conditions in that jail, and I now understood why there was video of Greg's enemy, on the internet, promising that he would get Greg into jail in Colbert County. Greg's advesary was determined to see his promise come true. A business risk taken in 2007 had hurt his reputation and he was hell bent to blame Greg for his failings.
And that is how I learned that orange is orange and we don't know how bad prison really is.
No one really cares either, because it's mostly filled with young black men.
Karina and I went into the office and Mark came out of the board room to greet us and immediately took us to meet the others. Abe introduced himself. He had two sons who practised law with their father, the Toronto lawyer was there, a public relations person from Montgomery, a secretary, two MBI executives, and Robin our ally. My chair was beside Robin and Karina found a chair behind me. Bail/bond discussions started immediately and it sounded as if nothing had been accomplished over the past two hours. I offered all of our real estate as bond, which included and house and farm in Florida and 5 properties in Canada, a total of seven properties. It represented a lot of money. Bail would be $250,000 -- and I don't know where that was to come from, as apparently this D&O policy that I heard of from Greg, "was not there", piped up one of the MBI execs.
They broke for lunch. The Toronto lawyer had come with home made cookies. Abe was happy that someone travelled with "their own baked goods". My heart had been severed in half a week ago, and there was cheerful chit-chat about cookies! It is a difficult truth that very few people are sensitive to the world of emotion or capable of walking in the shoes of others. I hope that I will learn from my experience and not fail in the future and promise to be aware of the needs of others during a crisis. What a terrible selfish world man has created.
The Florida properties had been purchased through an Alabama firm, but the Canadian property titles were documented by the Toronto lawyer. He had been billing for the past 20 years, and the properties had been purchased over a period of 5 years. Nothing was in organized files. He worked out of a briefcase full of scraps of papers and stickies, and became confused over the mess he had put on the boardroom table. It was an embarrassing display of incompetence. Abe was getting more animated and it was clear he had an ego and dramatic personality, perhaps that is what is needed for the courtroom, but I felt uncomfortable. To help clarify the confusion, I drew a map of the 5 Canadian properties, and listed the fire numbers for each property -- we just needed to associate the proper numbered company with each address. Shockingly difficult for the Toronto lawyer. Abe was also increasing the drama in the room and I was already becoming nervous about legal representation. In my opinion, Abe was not quick on his feet to grasp concepts and do mental gymnastics, elements that I feel are important if one is engaged in intellectual arguments. Robin and I rolled our eyes.
At three o'clock Karina and I were on our way to see Greg. The jail was across the street. Mark and one of Abe's son's came with us, and we were told that we should be prepared, 'it was not a nice place'. I won't waste precious typing time on descriptive passages. The other day, I realized that I don't actually need to blog for an entire year to get my story out into the universe forever. I think I shall go with the old Latvian saying 'the more you squeeze shit, the more it smells' and this whole story stinks to begin with.
I could hear Greg's voice as he moved down the hall towards the room we had been given for the meeting. He came in wearing an orange jumpsuit. His expensive Church shoes had the laces removed, something they do in jail so that you cant hang yourself. He looked like a tramp, unshaven as all of his familiar grooming tools were not available. He was fastidious and showered twice a day when at home and I knew this jail experience and the shock of the past week was hard on him. He had lost about 15 pounds, so had I, so had Natalie, so had Karina. We were all thrilled with the prison diet!
Greg was handcuffed, his loop of arm rose above my head like threading a needle. We hugged.
We made some jokes -- I told him he looked great in orange, the colour suited him. I reviewed all of the things Robin had told me about the indictment and how shallow it was. Let me just say, those are very weak words after a week in jail and facing the thought that someone had the power to accuse and convince a grand jury to indict you for $100,000 million securities fraud. I warned Greg that his enemy was out to either kill him physically, or at the very least assassinate his character. I also said that tomorrow he had to be brave and put his shoulders back and smile. There would be media. Greg told us that this jail in Tuscumbia was worse than Cook County. There were 7 men in a 10x14 cell -- our horse stalls in Canada were bigger. There were three bunk beds so one guy had to sleep on the floor and last night they all were killing cockroaches. I made a note to contact the ACLU when I got a chance. I am pretty sure that animal shelters are better than the conditions in that jail, and I now understood why there was video of Greg's enemy, on the internet, promising that he would get Greg into jail in Colbert County. Greg's advesary was determined to see his promise come true. A business risk taken in 2007 had hurt his reputation and he was hell bent to blame Greg for his failings.
And that is how I learned that orange is orange and we don't know how bad prison really is.
No one really cares either, because it's mostly filled with young black men.
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