Slam Dunk!

Oh gosh court today was way too easy! Especially after last week's what-the-hell-was-that experience in court.

Last week I thought the case against Nick (who now admits he resides at 911 C. Street after denying it for so long) was reopened because he had violated the January 15th settlement by having dogs on his property. I studied my notes (i.e. read my blog over a few times) and was prepared to testify about the dogs on the property after January 15th. I even brought pictures of the dogs labeled with the dates that I took them. By the way, this is a no no in court. Witnesses don't peek down at notes that haven't been entered as evidence while testifying. Ahem, anyway, I was actually questioned on the events of September 7th, 2007 and before my mind could change gears I found myself describing the wrong dog. When I caught myself I turned around to Tylerann and said, "Oh, it's the dead dog -- Bamboo." But it was too late. The defense attorney shut me up right then. She tried to have the case dismissed because we couldn't agree on what the dog looked like. As it turned out, the judge got the right idea. He stated that it looked to him that we were describing multiple incidents with multiple dogs running loose. He was right. The outcome was that Nick was found guilty but the judge suspended sentencing because the dog was supposedly dead. "Poisoned or something," he claimed. The judge warned that if that dog should turn up in the next 12 months, perjury would be a consideration and jail likely.

Before the trial actually began, Lynne took T and me aside and told us the deal she was trying to work out with Shirley's attorney. Part of the settlement would state that there would never be dogs at that address as long as they were living there. I asked, "And if they move?" Lynne said they didn't have any jurisdiction over that. I said so it would be simple if they just moved. I vote we settle on them agreeing to that. Then they wont be bothering me and they can have dogs if they choose. A win win situation!

There had been some skirmish in the back with Mrs. Shirley. Her attorney then came forward and asked the judge about Kennedy's case. Apparently Shirley thought that her husband's case (she's now claiming him as her husband) had been dismissed. I guess the judge not imposing punishment gave her that impression. She's no virgin to the court system. The judge corrected her and explained that he was reserving the right to sentencing at a later date if that dog showed back up. Shirley was expecting to get the same but that did not happen.

He didn't send the witnesses outside this time. I guess he figured we had all been there several times before and that he was going to hear much the same thing anyway. The animal control officer, Lynne, started off with a brief description of why we were there and then started pouring out the pictures. The defense attorney objected and asked that they be properly entered into evidence individually. This was probably not a good thing for the defense it turns out because Lynne handed each picture to the judge and with each one described why the picture was taken and what it was to represent. Each picture showed the brown and white dog on my lawn or in my driveway. The city attorney asked T if that was the dog, she said uh huh. He asked me if that was the dog, if that was my yard, if I took the pictures. I answered each time with the same uh huh and that was it.

The defense attorney didn't even cross examine either of us.

Lynne went on to remind the judge that Shirley had signed papers in his courtroom May 6th, 2007 surrendering two dogs to the city. There was no problem picking up the little white puppy at the address provided but when the animal control officers arrived on Harrison Street, Kennedy was there. The resident contended that the brown and white dog was his and they couldn't take it with the court order reading that it was Shirley's. Not only that, they had tried dyeing spots on the dog to alter it's appearance and tried to convince animal control that this was the wrong dog. They said that Tracker, the brown and white dog, was a male and this dog here was female. I guess nobody had any evidence as to the sex of the offending dog. I was more concerned about it's teeth, frankly. I am certain that no amount of hair dye is going to change that dogs genitalia (and thank Heaven for that or who knows what mine would look like by now). I remember Lynne coming back to my house that day and asking me to print out the best pictures I had showing off the markings on this dog. The dog had very distinct marks and after viewing the rest of my pictures there was no doubt that this dog was one and the same.

The judge held the pictures like a playing hand to be proud of. I was hoping he would just slap them down and say gin but I didn't think it would happen. Then it happened. Well he didn't say "gin" exactly but he might as well have. He did say that the pictures showed with out a doubt that the city had proven it's case, that specifically being that the dog was running loose on January 29th, 2008 (see my blog on same date).

As Judge Cook began considering consequences, Lynne pulled out the pictures of the dyed dog. The judge reviewed them before looking up at Shirley. He started with, "Ms. Shirley, you've made this a lot more complicated than it need to be. That's why I'm going to sentence you like this." He looked down and started writing as he was talking and I didn't hear every thing. I did hear him rattle on, "court fees will be $470, blah blah blah. . . . .and thirty days. . . . . beginning August 12th, bond set at $500." Then it hit me. She was going to JAIL! Oh gosh! It hadn't occurred to me that there might be jail time with this. I thought a couple hundred dollar fine and that would be it. Oh yeah! She's going to Jail. Turns out her sentence is actually 180 days with 150 suspended, has to serve 30, and two years probation. Of course she gets 14 days to appeal. Don't know if there's much point but she probably will.

While this is still bouncing around in my head it occurs to me that somebody is going to be pissed leaving the courtroom. Then T whispered to the city attorney, "Are we done?" As he nodded T came out of her seat and almost ran out of the courtroom. Either she had to pee really badly or it had crossed her mind to get the hell out of Dodge before Shirley did! I popped up and was out of there and to the steps calling, "Wait for me!" We jumped in my car and headed for somewhere to eat.

My phone was dead so I asked T to call my daughter (who was at home with my grandchildren) and warn her to lock the doors. T called Sarah and said, "She's going to jail."

Sarah screamed back, "Who MOM?"

"No, not your mom, Shameka!"
T and I sat and ate lunch giggling, 'She's going to jail!" one minute and, "Oh hell, they are going to be pissed at us!" the next. We finally ordered lunch for Lynne and took it to her at the animal shelter to thank her for a job well done.

Demdamneighbors

Saturday morning the girls and I met at Panera Bread for brunch on their way out of town to go mow grass in Kentucky. My job for the weekend was to finish painting the hallway and to repaint one wall in the living room. I wanted to make it an accent wall, two shades darker than what I just painted it. I was unhappy with the way the red elephant picture looked. All afternoon Saturday I painted until I ran out of the trim color.

I pulled a bottle of wine out of the fridge and a couple of wine glasses and walked around the yard to find Rick. We sat on the porch talking until the bottle was empty. Seems he had an encounter with Nick the nuisance next door.

Rick spent the better part of the day spraying sealer on the deck and privacy fence. While he was standing in Nick's yard spraying the outside, Nick was talking to the little juvenile delinquent who lives on the other side of him. While staring Rick in the eye, Nick told Mitchell, "I ought to go in and get my gun and shoot that bitch for draggin' me into court all the time." Then when no reaction, "I'll shoot her husband too. He probably don't even know what's going on." Rick just finished the fence and moved on.

I think the point of this was to entice Rick into a confrontation of some sort. I told Rick he ought to make a police report. Rick said he's thinking about calling Mr. S. The landlord and telling him the dude's gotta go!

Did you read that Tylerann? I know you said that Nick made some sort of attempt at an apology last week but it's not genuine. I had a hard time thinking it might have been. Don't go getting to chummy.

Oh yeah, the wall I repainted turned out lovely. I think the new color is the color I wanted all along. Maybe I'll get a wild hair and repaint the other walls.

Painting again!

I set aside this fourth of July weekend as time to paint the living room. I've had paint samples taped to my walls for over six months and I've finally chosen a green called Dusted Bronze. It's a shade darker than my bedroom and the same color I am to paint the kitchen sometime soon.

Friday I started clearing the outdated shelves and junk off my walls. I'm keeping the Alabama prints but not much of anything else. I've ordered some black floating shelves either for the living room or the kitchen (or both).

I took a break in the afternoon to go see WALL-E with the kids and grands. About fifteen minutes into the movie Sarah complained that her back hurt and she couldn't move. I helped her to the lobby and called her grandfather to come take her to the emergency room while I stayed with Laura and the boys.

I'm not really sure what the movie was about. I couldn't pay attention . I just wished it would hurry up and get over so I could go and tend to Sarah. I met her at the hospital and waited for a doctor to see her. He thought she just had a muscle spasm or something. Gave her some happy shots and prescriptions for happy pills and sent us on our way. Later we laughed that it might have been caused by the back bend she did at the house that morning to prove to Laura she could. No more back bends!

Saturday I got serious with the painting and Sunday I almost finished.



It sure is much brighter than that "otter tail" brown I had in here. The carpet looks dirtier and I had to lower the wattage of the bulbs in the lamps.

Family Reunion!

We held another Holley Family reunion in Pine Mountain Georgia. It was a neat place. There was nothing for miles around. Nowhere to eat, nowhere to shop, nowhere to anything but visit with family. I take that back. There was a botanical garden and a the Wild Animal Safari. We had to go to see the animals.

We rented one the the zoo's own vehicles, broken down mini vans with bars for windows. The sign advertised that it was cheaper than a good car wash and would avoid damage to one's own vehicle. It turned out to be a good idea. We had a buffalo to rock the van we were in. My little Escape would not have liked such treatment. There was a little red Toyota behind us. Ha ha just like waving a drape at a bull!

The spare tire cover on the rather new Jeep ahead of us reads, "Only in a Jeep".

Warren really enjoyed it.

We observed a lot of tongues but avoided getting licked.
NOTE: If you are into this sort of thing you can click on the picture to magnify it.

Laura sat in the front passenger seat to get good pictures. As she was leaning over Rick to take a picture out the driver's side, somebody was poking their nose in her window -- and their tongue.

You should have heard her scream.

Mother's 80th birthday

Hi, I'm back. It's been a busy summer so far. In June, we celebrated my wonderful mother's 80th birthday. My brother and sister got together and decorated the clubhouse in my parents' neighborhood and invited forty or so of their closest friends. My sister did most of the food. She's just good at all that.

Isn't she lovely?

My 93 year old aunt came from Birmingham.

I don't know who my dad is making advances on.

We kept the trouble makers all in one spot. There's my father-in-law, my husband, and my two sweet grandsons Warren and Parker.

Here's the whole bunch of us.

Lot's of Arms to Hold and Love

Puppa

Aarika

Katie

Courtney

Brittany

Parker and Warren

Mommy, Parker, and Warren

Auntie Laura

Auntie Krystal

He's so handsome!

Sweet Family

Nini Loves the Baby

No Court

I received a phone call yesterday afternoon informing me that court would be continued because a witness could be present for the May 20th date. Oh well. Let you know how that goes whenever it is rescheduled.

Parker's First Bath

And he did not like it!

OMG!

My neighbor two doors down has had a junk collection in his front yard since before we moved here 17 years ago. In all that time the neighborhood has beat up the city about making this guy clean up. I don't know if he finally grew a wild hair and decided to clean up his lot or what but he had all the cars removed last weekend. It's amazing! I wish I had a before pic, wait, there was one in the Decatur Daily, wonder if I can retrieve it. No, can't get the picture. We did have a duck to spend the day in our neighbors yard Sunday and I was taking pictures of it. Perhaps you can see the junk before and after.

All these cars have been collecting for decades!

See! No cars beyond the basketball goal! It's amazing.

There must be a city council meeting this week.

Hey Mom! How do these work?

Why these women so stupid?

In court this past Tuesday no settlement could be reached. We come to a settlement all agree to and the minute we leave the courthouse it's breached. The judge even sounded like he was fresh out of patience and tired of playing games.

After the last session Shamika was to give up the addresses of the dogs. She wouldn't give up the address where Tracker was kept even after animal control officers told her where he was. This week she still claimed they are not her dogs and doesn't know where Tracker is.

This weeks problem sits around why Shamika is still being dragged to court when this other guy on Harrison claims Tracker to be his dog. I don't know what happened to the you can't get rid of property involved in a crime thing. I didn't get to sit in on the settling talks in the witness room this time. I had to take one of my toddlers out to have a diaper change before we were held in constench of court.

I could not understand what was being said when the parties stood in front of the judge. A nine percent city tax and our courtroom can't afford microphones. No, it's not The People's Court by a long shot. I did hear the judge repeat over and over that if there are charges that can be brought against the person that has the dog now then that case should be brought before him.

After court we stood just outside the doors talking to M, the animal control officer that was there that day. As Shamika passed us on her way out she cussed and fussed and I heard the B word a couple of times before she hit the first landing of the stairwell and I could hear her no longer. M explained to us that because someone else claims ownership that they have to have a reason to go after that person. Since that dog has caused havoc and chaos in it's new neighborhood that wont be difficult.

Now, this is the crazy part. No matter who the dog owner is, when there's a dog crime, the owner of the property the animal resides on is the one charged with a crime. In this case, the one who signed the lease on the rental property.

Here's the stupid part. I don't know what's so great about these dogs that two women are willing to spend so much time in and out of court, paying fines, and gaining a criminal record. Shamika with her four kids and freeloading boyfriend who is technically "the baby sitter" according to the landlord and doesn't live there according to Section 8 records, is willing to take the crap for Nick's dogs? Lie in court? Pay fines? Stupid.

Now, Nick's cousin has the dog but Dude (I think in a previous post we agreed to refer to him as "Dude on Harrison St.") doesn't legally live there. No, his girlfriend is the only person on the lease at that address. According to animal control, there are animal cruelty issues that they will be bringing against her. Hello! Would I allow my freeloading boyfriend to let his loser cousin dump his dogs on my property causing me trouble with the law, fines, and criminal charges? I would be telling a man to take the dog and an f 'ing hike! At the very least I would call animal control to relieve me of the damn thing (and the dog too if a spare cage was available).

What I found interesting was that the animal control people already checked into whether or not they could prove Nicholas lives on Clearview St. with Shamika. The way this is done is to get mail records. I'm guessing a warrant is needed for this. I'm also guessing they had one. Apparently Nick gets no mail at the Clearview address so legally does not live there. They're pretty good at committing fraud over there. What I'm thinking is how neighborly it would be of me to send him a gift subscription to something like Dog Fancy. Anyone in on that with me?

See you after Tuesday's trial.

Oh did I get messed up!

Correction!

Ok, I am confused with my players. Let me untangled them now:

Shamika Shirley and Nicholas Kennedy are my foolish, violent, irresponsible dog owner neighbors. They have had four offensive dogs on that property over the past three years. The almost white dog, a big hairy thing I have no idea what breed. Bamboo, who showed his teeth at a daycare parent and an animal control officer on at least one occasion each. Tracker, the brown and white spotted pit bull, and the little white pit pup that we discovered after court January 15th. No dogs, as far as I can see, have resided on the property for a couple of months.

Now here's where I messed up. The dude formerly referred to as "Cousin Chris" and possessing Tracker, is not the man on Harrison St. SE. He's the guy with the white pup and he lives over by the fairgrounds. He is Shamika's brother.

I don't know the name of the dude on Harrison St. so I will here on refer to him as . . . er . . . uhm . . . I don't know, how about Dude on Harrison St. He's the one that claimed that Tracker belonged to his cousin Nick until Animal control came with a court order to pick up Nick's dog and he claimed it was his. My advice to this momo, pick a side of the fence and stick with it or the barbed wire will really rub your nu. . . . I'm sorry, no more Dr. Phil.

I think I've got it right now. See you Tuesday!

Ugh!

I just checked my mail and I have been subpoenaed to appear in court again next week! Here we go again!

I just called my buddy about this and she says that help has been found. Apparently it's against the law to get rid of or sell or whatever property involved in a crime. The dogs being that property. There's new hope.

Oh what a tangled web we weave. . .

You know what's wrong here? No body has been sworn to tell the truth. One can't perjure oneself if he hasn't taken an oath.

We went to court Tuesday morning. We agreed on a settlement that goes something like this: Shamika Shirley agrees to let both dogs, Tracker, the brown and white spotted pit and the little white puppy pit, to be picked up by the animal shelter. The shelter would then offer the dogs (at the regular fee) to be adopted out by the people who are currently taking care of them as long as they have a suitable environment. Simple.

This should have been a painless solution since the first thing Shamika Shirley's attorney said to the judge was that these dogs belong to neither Nicholas Kennedy nor Shamika Shirley. So, Shirley was to give the addresses where the dogs could be found. It was hard to hear everything said and I didn't hear this part but apparently Shirley was less than forthcoming with the 411. L, our animal shelter representative, informed the judge that she already knew where Tracker was. He's on Harrison Street irritating the crap out of the SE neighborhood. Finally an address was given for somewhere over by the fairgrounds for the white pup.

The judge was careful to state that this deal was not sealed until the animals could be taken into custody. If they couldn't be obtained then he would see us all back in court next Tuesday. L seemed certain that there would be no problem picking up the dogs.

Not so. T and I spent a couple of hours after court shopping and had hardly returned home when trouble began. It went something like this though the details aren't really clear to me. In trying to take Tracker from the Harrison St. address, L had a run in with Nick (who is one scary and violent SOB). He says that the dog on Harrison St. is not the same dog they have an order to pick up. Bullshit. Actually, I don't think that was L's reply but I know she was thinking it. L called me asking for the best pics I have of the dog. She had to prove to Shirley and Kennedy's attorney that this was the dog. Of course it was. The animal has several very distinguished makings and there was no question.

So, back on Harrison St., this is the dog they have a court order to collect. now there's a problem with the resident, Chris. Chris who two weeks ago when the animal shelter confronted him about the dog getting loose and terrorizing the neighborhood said, It's not my dog. I'm just keeping it for my cousin." The cousin turned out to be none other than Nicholas Kennedy. A nice break for this case. Nicholas Kennedy avers strongly and repeatedly and up in the animal control officers faces, "It's not my dog!" one minute and "You can't take my dogs!" the next.

Ok, let's go over this. It's not Nick's dog. It's not Shamika's dog. It's not Chris' dog. What's the problem then? The problem is now, Chris, who lives at the same address as Tracker but is not the property owner, (no, he's a freeloader just like his cousin, living off his girlfriend) now claims Tracker is his dog. SAY WHAT? And the property owner wont let them take the dog. And that's another thing, Chris says Nick is his cousin. An animal control officer told me that Chris was Shamika's brother. This would make Shamika Shirley shacking up with and having kids with her cousin? I don't even want to go there.

New plan. The animal shelter draws up a new proposal to settle that says that the current property owner can keep the dog up until the dog leaves the property then it becomes the City of Decatur's property. BUT. . .

Now I don't understand this and I may have it wrong but my friend called this morning and said that the magistrate made a little clerical error. The case at hand was not listed as a vicious animal case, it was more a case against Shamika Shirley. This means that Trackers new owners could keep him no strings attached and Tracker doesn't get labeled a potentially vicious animal. The difference is, I think, that had this been a vicious animal case, the dog, no matter who claims him (or not), would have been picked up on the court order. Big slip up. Back to square one.

Oh yeah, one last admission from Nick, "Bamboo isn't dead but you'll never find him."

No shit.

The little prince is here!

Our baby was born yesterday! Parker Liam McKillop was born May 1st, 2008. He is 7lbs. and 13 oz., 20 inches long, and perfect in every way. Sarah is doing very well. We are truly blessed.

Parker looks just like Warren!

Sarah and Parker

Laura, Sarah, and Parker

Warren and Sarah

Sarah and Parker

Nana the Great holding Parker

Our beautiful baby

Aunt Laura and Parker

BBAY TOMRORWO!

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I am so excited I can't form words!

OH! OH! OH! OH!

Oh this is too good! About the dogs next door--A couple of weeks ago my daughter Sarah was returning to the house from an errand. AS she stepped out of her car she over heard a conversation between the little girl next door and a little boy she did not recognize. The little boy was asking to see her daddy's dogs. She told him that they didn't have any dogs any more. The boy asked why and she told him because they had too many. The boy asked where the dogs went and was told that they were at Cousin Chris'.

I let L (my daycare parent/animal control officer) know that when we go to court again and Nick can't remember what he did with the dogs that perhaps she could refresh his memory by inquiring where Cousin Chris lives.

With the May 6th court date right around the corner, L comes in this morning to drop off Joshua with some news on the dog called Tracker. Apparently this dog has been causing some trouble in the SE. He bites through chain link and can't be contained any better there than he could be here and has had some run ins with animal control. The animal control officer that's been dealing with him was not familiar with the dog. He talked to the man at the residence where the dog is being kept and found that he was not the owner of the dog. In fact, he admitted that he didn't know what to do to keep this dog in his yard but he couldn't give it back to his cousin because the court had previously ordered no dogs on his property. The cousin's name, Nick Kennedy. Surprise, surprise.

OH! OH! OH! and Cousin Chris and Tracker live a few houses down the street from one daycare parent and on the street behind another. This is going to get good.

May 6th is going to be very interesting indeed.

Easter!

Warren had a great time hunting Easter eggs this year. He tore through the yard yelling and screaming running right over most of the eggs. Later he finished with a short game of football with his great grandfather.

Weekend in the Smokies

Rick and I spent a long weekend in the Gatlinburg Pigeon Forge area. Last May we purchased a vacation club and gave the names of our friends as referals. A couple of months ago Tylerann told me they were going to visit the Bluegreen Resort and asked if we would come with them. Oh yes! We had not had an opportunity to use out points yet so we scheduled too.

The Mountain Loft Resort in Gatlinburg was full so we settled for Laurel Crest in Pigeon Forge. It was a lovely place. We stayed in a studio room, sort of a glorified motel room. It's the smallest accommodation, using the least amount of points. For allowing Bluegreen to give us a personal owner update (try to sell us more points) we were given three $30 dinner gift certificates. Not a bad hours work. Except that it took two hours and they did indeed sell us more points. Tylerann and Donnie did not buy a vacation club but that's all right. We earned $50 just for them listening to the sales pitch and we had buddies all weekend. They can buy vacation nights from us in the future. We are going to need to sell some just to pay for this!

We spent Thursday night at the Comedy Barn and laughed our faces off! Three rules for the Comedy Barn: 1) No eye liner or mascara, 2) Plenty of Kleenex, 3) Do not volunteer to go on stage, it can not go well.

Friday we road through Cade's Cove and did a little walking. We didn't see any bears but we saw a gazillion deer.

Our friends

On Potty Training

Politically correct or not, My daughter, Sarah has come up with a new, no fail, potty training technique. Yesterday Sarah bought some cloth training pants once deciding it was time to train her two and a half year old son. He did very well yesterday. I put the training pants on him as soon as he got up in the morning and from then until we went out to eat last night he had only wet three pair but had used the potty at least four times successfully. I forgot to put a diaper on him during nap but he woke up dry and went promptly to the potty afterwards. Hurray Warren!

Before going to eat we decided it best to put a diaper on Warren. When we got home he was still dry so Sarah tried to get him to potty then. Nope, he wouldn't do it. A little later Sarah still could not interest him in the potty. Sarah went to the kitchen and got a few cheerios. She started tossing one then two in the potty and asked Warren if he wanted to do it too. Well of course he did. Then my nutty daughter mischievously says, "Now let's pee on them!

"OK!" was Warren's excited little answer. Warren pulled his pants down and proceeded to soak those floating rings of whole grain goodness!

Nobody said potty training couldn't be fun!