Some of my classmates and I went to the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Court recently to witness a trial. We asked an employee where we could find some interesting cases in order to avoid the ever-boring traffic court. We were directed to the sixth floor of the annex building for child sex abuse trials. Boom. Something depressing, out of the ordinary and so interesting. After walking across the bridge and up the elevator to courtrooms 61 and 62, we found locked doors and no one in sight. The entire courthouse was on recess, it was just about noon. Perfect timing. So what to do for the two hours that everyone is on lunch break? We drink. My favorite bar is within walking distance from the courthouse and you bet your ass I was skipping through downtown Tampa to get there. After a delectable Stella Artois, it was time to head back. Now I’m definitely in the mood to witness the justice of castigating child sex abuse offenders.
So we get to the courtroom and I can only describe it as chaos. I had no idea what was going on and everyone was speaking so quickly, it was like a crash course in law jargon. Lawyers were walking around frantically. It finally slowed down and we could understand the goings on of courtroom 62.
The first trial we witnessed was a short one. This 16-year-old boy named Terrance Oliver was in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs waiting to be called to the stand. His grandmother and sister were sitting directly in front of us. They called the grandmother and Terrance to the stand for questioning. The story is that the grandmother is the legal guardian of Terrance and his 14-year-old sister. Their mother passed a few years ago and Terrance decided to go down the wrong path. He committed robbery and was apparently given a chance by this same judge, Manuel Lopez. My guess is he was charged as a juvenile and not as an adult. He was put on probation as another punishment and with probation comes a curfew. Terrance violated that curfew, was in a high drug area and was spotted in between two cars by a cop. Terrance knew he was in violation of his probation and decided to run. The cop chased him, caught him, and here we are today.
Wait, this has absolutely nothing to do with child sex abuse. Damn it. Okay, well, it’s still interesting regardless.
So then the grandmother gets called to give a statement about Terrance. She did the typical, “he’s a good boy, his mother passing put him in the wrong direction.”
His mother passing put him in the wrong direction? I know many people, young and old, whose mothers have died and I don’t see anyone robbing a house. What is wrong with today’s youth? Terrance also has gone up to the ninth grade. How impressive, a sixteen-year-old boy with a fourteen-year-old education. Something needed to be done to put this child in the right direction. And the judge did just that. Judge Manuel A. Lopez sent Terrance Oliver to a youthful offender facility. Hopefully this works because his grandmother said she is sick and tired of going to the courthouse. Yeah, Granny, that's the real problem here.
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