Paris Attacks and Heart Attacks and Lady Peach

January 8, 2015.
Passing Thoughts
Paris was attacked by terrorists yesterday.  There are many incidents of terrorism every day, everywhere.  Intolerant ideology will be a challenge for all good people on earth.  The killing of journalists, or torturing anyone who speaks up against something, is similar to a gag order.  I do not have a gag order, and some comedians reacted to yesterday's atrocity by saying, "we will have to think twice before making a joke".  I disagree, sounds like freedom of speech is under attack.

Yesterday, while wrapping and boxing up Christmas decorations and all of the sentimental things collected from Christmases past, I had to appreciate the good fortune I had experienced for most of my life, and that of my family's.  The value of the education and parenting received from my family members was priceless, as indeed it had prepared me, and consequently my family, for the challenge we faced last year.  Courage does not come instinctively, courage is learned through the principles and values established by your family and your society.  You have to understand with your brain, what is worth fighting for, otherwise you are merely a bully or terrorist.  We need to find statesmen willing to speak honestly and face the issues that led to the slaughter of journalists.  It takes courage to speak the truth.

The Tale
Greg had insisted that Natalie and Karina 'check in' every day, the one request he made when they left home for school.  The girls had been 'checking in' now for over 10 years.  Consequently, the fact that we were denied access to speaking with him on account of the arrest was hard to deal with for all of us.  We were only two days into the nightmare, but it felt like a month.  In order to be able to talk to him, we needed that U.S. credit card to set up an account with Securus.  Karina called the Chicago attorney that had been 'hired' for Greg.  She explained the situation, and asked for his credit card info and for a $100 favour.  He flatly refused.  Karina blasted, "you're going to be billing him thousands of dollars and you can't advance $100?"

It was no use, we did not have any outside help, everything would be up to the three of us.  Natalie reached out to her Alabama friend and without any hesitation one of her law school classmates stepped up and said "sure - anything. Here is my card info -- do what ever you need and don't worry about it."

Natalie quickly went to work, organizing the Securus account with the borrowed credit card, as well as going online to change the billing address of one our VISA cards from a Canadian address to our Florida address.  That change would take 24 hours, but at least we had a start with that $100!  There were calls back and forth between Canada and Delray and exhausted, the three of us agreed to pick up tomorrow where we left off.  At least tomorrow, we hoped, we could talk to Greg.

No one slept.

On Thursday November 14, 2013, Robin called me from New York.  He was the attorney Mr. Friendly had spoken of.  After a brief introduction he asked me calmly,
"Where is your husband?"
"Cook County Jail."
"Good".
"Good?" I screeched. "What's good about that?"
"It tells me that he is in a State Prison, and that these are state charges, not federal securities charges.  There is a huge difference between the two."  He went further, "at the federal level, you would not be able to have a sealed grand jury, this is why this has come as a surprise.  At the federal level, in order to file securities fraud charge, you would have to be 99% positive that you could prove culpability, and as we say in the business, at the state level, you can indict a ham sandwich. Unfortunately, this is now a legal matter, and as such, you will have to follow the legal procedures established by the government.  There is nothing to do but follow the legal process, and I want to be clear, this will be ugly and long and you will need to be patient."  It would take me some time to fully comprehend these words.

Robin was an antidote for my shock.  He was eloquent and empathetic and his calm tone contrasted sharply to the experience I had with the other New York attorney.  His approach gave me confidence that I had someone willing to help with our situation, and I felt comfortable, after a brief 30 minute conversation, to ask him to come on board.  In order to do so, however, he would need a retainer, which meant I had to get permission from MBI.

Naturally, I reached out to the brother, but I again was only able to leave a voice message.  I did however speak to another one of 'the five' and told him, that this was a time to show loyalty to Greg and to help me get approval for Robin.  I believe it was that same day that the aggressive attack phone calls began.  The brother finally called me and was furious.  Apparently, I was out of line to have called Mr. Friendly, "I had no right" I was "messing everything up".  He said that I didn't know what I was doing and that  having a New York attorney represent Greg in Alabama was insane.  The language was strong.  I received a negative call from the attorney who had done the contracual work as well, and even another call from a Toronto lawyer.  The phone lines were burning up with all of the heated cross conversations all plotting strategies to cut me off and cut me out completely.

Loretto Academy should be thanked.  Time to Google Mary Ward 1585-1645, the founder of The Sisters of Loretto.  Born during the reign of Elizabeth I, she founded a convent dedicated to educating girls, an idea quite a bit older and not original in the 21st Century, and Nobel was not handing out prizes back then.  Please read about this remarkable woman, and all of the Sisters who taught young girls for the past 400 years.  These nuns taught girls that they were equal to the intellect of men.  Strength was debatable, but intellectual goals were limitless.  The insulting phone calls did nothing to frighten me.  I reported everything to Robin.  He told me that my story was as old as the Bible itself, Adam and Eve, and their sons Cain and Abel.  This was going to be epic.  By Friday Robin was on board and had received a copy of the indictment.  He called Natalie to give her words of encouragement and walked her through the 'law', and during their conversation he encouraged her to go visit Greg.  Robin was planning to go see him on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Karina had heard back from Greg's social worker, and she had agreed to let Greg know that we had set up the phone card for him.  I think Greg called us around 2PM, and since only one number could be registered with Securus, we had agreed that we would use the Florida land line, that way, someone would be at home waiting for a call.  Karina and I could take turns, whereas Natalie was alone.  Naturally, we were so excited when we heard his voice, and repeatedly asked if he was OK.  I managed to tell him that I had called Mr. Friendly and that he had put me in touch with Robin, and that Robin would be coming to see him in CC as would Natalie.  And then the phone went dead.
We had barely had 5 minutes of conversation and the meter had run dry.  After telling the law clerk about the five minute call, she said that those calls from jail were expensive.  We waited to load up my VISA, all I knew was that 5 minutes cost $100, I would have to load my VISA for a lot more than that.

The plan was that Natalie would go to Chicago.  She had been advised by the law clerk assigned to her from the New York/Chicago firm, that as a non-resident of the county, she would be able to visit Greg on Saturday and Sunday.  The exact day that the transfer from Chicago to Alabama was top secret, as Marshalls were not available.  Had the charges been federal securities fraud charges, the accused would be moved within a 48 hour time period, but state charges allowed for 30 DAYS for the transfer.  Greg called Saturday morning and told us that he was fine.  Everyone in his section was between the ages of 18 to about 30 and his cellies had nick named him 'Old School'.  He shared a cell with 'Drama'.  Karina wanted to know what kind of people were there, what were their charges?

"Oh you know, armed robbery, murder, stuff like that, and the funny thing is, they are all innocent".
It took me a moment.

I told him Natalie was en route to Chicago and that she would be there to visit him later that day.  He was going to be busy, as both the contract lawyer from New York and Robin were flying in to see him.  Natalie would have to wait until after five, but attorneys had privileges to visit clients at any time.  His visitors would be a welcome distraction from what he had experienced since Tuesday, and we all caught a little relief knowing that he would not be alone.  We also were comforted to know that the VISA phone credit was working now.

We were sitting on pins and needles knowing that Natalie was heading towards Cook County Corrections to visit her Dad.

And that is how I thought I was going to have a heart attack.