She worked as a part-time cashier for Foodlion as an after-school job. She was preoccupied checking out customers one afternoon (it was very busy and she had a long line) and some kid brought up a can of what seemed to be one of those energy drinks and she rang it through without thinking about it. It turned out that the “customer” behind the young man was an undercover agent and what the young man had purchased was an alcoholic drink. (I’m Mormon, I don’t drink alcohol, and I don’t even know what it was or how to identify it. My daughter didn’t know what it was, either.) She got fired from her job, of course, and came home in tears. I was so sad for her, because she loved her job and loved to work.
My daughter is pretty much a responsible girl, although a little naive. She has never been in trouble before. She gets pretty decent grades in school and was planning on going into the army–in fact, she had an appointment with the recruiter this Thursday.
Well, anyway, we had to go to court. This was an utter goat-rope of gigantic proportions. I was trained as a paralegal and yet I never imagined that court would be like this! There was about 300 people of all ages crammed into the courtroom and they had to form a line around the room to make their way up front and plead their case. When it was her turn, we got to this guy who pulled her file and said that she could plead guilty and pay a fine, or go to a juvenile rehab program for which I was to pay $300. Those were our only options. I asked about the option of pleading not-guilty and he just kind of fumbled around and stuttered for a while, and said we could come back to court on another day. He didn’t say when.
Well, sorry, I was a single parent, I spent 2 1/2 months out of work this summer because I was laid-off from my job and had hell trying to find another, and I didn’t have $300 to give to juvenile rehab programs, especially when my daughter doesn’t need rehab. She needs to concentrate on finishing her last year of highschool and go on to her career.
I spent the last couple of months trying to find work and now that I have a job, I can’t afford to take days off to fool around. My time being unemployed caused me to be late on my bills–now I have bill collectors ringing me up all day. I came awful close to being homeless this summer–my church paid my rent for me.
Well, this was back in August. It’s December now and I just got home from work and met my crying daughter at the door. It seems that the sherriff came by to let her know that she would be going to jail tomorrow. What the freak?!! She’s just a little 17-year-old kid and all. Where’s the justice in this?! I now have to take a precious day off work to figure out what I am going to do.
The undercover cop is sitting back all smug and snotty saying he was just doing his job. I can’t stand this.
What can I do?
It was a sting operation, the “customer” and the undercover cop were acting together
