The Knife Case

The year of anxiety and building faith

The court saga began on September 11 of last year.

     I was pulled over for speeding in a school zone.
The day I was pulled over was the first day of school in the fife school district and I had driven through the school zone to the hardware store to get some saw blades for the table saw at work. By the time I had checked out and left the hardware store the school zone lights had began flashing (for the first time all summer). I proceeded to head back to work going the posted speed limit of 30mph. Not even 100 feet after the high school on my right hand side I saw red and blue behind me.

    At this point I had no idea what I was being pulled over for. I was off drugs, not drinking, working nearly 60hrs a week at the farm and homeless. So in my mind there was nothing for the police or the government to harass me about at all. I was completely at ease and although polite and courteous I was nonchalant because I felt that there was nothing to fear possibly just a misunderstanding.

The officer took my license after telling me that I was going 10 over in a school zone. This was news to me. After running my license the officer, hand now on his weapon, slowly approached the work truck and asked me to slowly get out of the vehicle. After handcuffing me and sitting me down on the rear-bumper of the truck he informed me that my license was in fact suspended and that I was under arrest for DWLS in the 3rd degree (lowest degree there is). That's when he noticed the knife in my pocket, the knife I had purchased at Wal-Mart beginning of summer to aid in my work on the farm. The link for you to buy one is here (gerber @ Wal-Mart).

After using 3 very strong centrifugal motions the knife snapped open in the officers hand, at which time he said I was also being charged with possession of a deadly weapon. My boss was then called to come pick up the truck and myself, I was released from handcuffs had my picture taken (where I looked like a james dean-ish thug, if I can get a copy I'll post it, it's almost funny, until you realize it's how I looked in that pic that started the whole process with the prosecutor.)

Interesting Side note: Not long after I was pulled over on this stop is when I got into the car accident with Monica, where Sake died and my back was all messed up. IF I hadn't been pulled over only two weeks prior to this event, actually it was more like 5 days. I would have still (unknowingly) been suspended, and therefore NOT covered by my insurance. Because I was pulled over I was able to get my license back and reclaim insurance before the accident which in effect saved me thousands in medical bills and will also get me quite a nice settlement sum.

More than a year later, today we went to court to find out that the prosecutor whom was the one that thought I should be charged and given a year in jail WAS NOT IN COURT TODAY! His assistant came in his stead. I'm not sure what the cause of his absence was. I was told that it is a VERY rare occasion that this prosecutor ever misses court. This is what saved us. The prosecutor's assistant owns the very same knife that I was caught and charged with. That being the case, he agreed to drop it if I plead guilty to driving with a suspended license. If the regular prosecutor had been there I would have been given a trial date, and we'd still be praying and crossing our fingers respectively.

This is a complete miracle, I mean seriously. The chances that this prosecutor who is the biggest cold-hearted hardass in fife would not be there on today's date, well it's nothing short of God's handiwork.

I just want to thank all my friends and family for praying and encouraging me. You all have made me feel that I'm loved and special.