Lake County Jail

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Pre-sentencing

Interview with Bee

JM: Tell us about the pre-sentencing process:
Bee: I was sitting in court fighting my case for exactly a year. I only had a public defender which I think was the most horrible thing. I told everyone that I was tricked into admitting the crime. I told them that if they reviewed the tape they would see that I was only doing my job and that I should be able to beat my case. My public defender told me that no matter what I did I couldn't beat my case. For exactly a year I tried to take my case to trial because I know I didn't do anything but in the end my public defender told me he talked to the state's attorney and if I didn't accept their plea that I surely would be going away for a long long time. About 7 years in prison and then some Fed time.

JM: Did you have police stop by your house for questioning? If not please give us details on how you came to be arrested.
Bee: I didn't have the police come by. They contacted the C.I.A. and had them come by randomly to question me and try to get information from me that I didn't have.

JM: What as court like? Please give as many details as you recall.
Bee: Every time I went to court I was there a few hours because they were so crowded and my public defender treated me like I was just a number to her. Because she had to help so many people she never got to say anything to me besides "Hi, you're here so hopefully we'll get your case called very soon!" I still always ended up waiting on the other cases. Also I am of mixed race but my darker heritage is more apparent. All the young white boys would get called and they had cases for D.U.I and attempted murder. If they had a financial prevailing family in the community then they were able to go home. Their case was dismissed as long as they gave an apology to the party they offended.