"I'm a bright, capable and creative-enough guy. I'm someone accustomed to being useful to society," the man lamented to an Ohio newspaper columnist. Once a successful physician, husband and father, this man was scouring the want ads, hoping to find a job. It is an activity that has consumed his waking hours with increasing frustration every day since his parole from and Ohio state prison more than a year ago. "I've applied for every job I could," said the man. "Five hundred, easy. But when you have a nine-year gap in your employment record, there is no way to make that look good." He's had a few interviews, but his prison record is a formidable roadblock. "Who would you hire?" he asks, if you could choose between an ex-con and anyone else?
I picked up the Columbus Dispatch while traveling through Ohio over the holidays and was moved by columnist Mike Harden's interview with a once vibrant, talented and skilled man who now struggles to scratch out the barest of existences. Convicted, sentenced to prison and finally paroled after seven years, "The only thing a jury could convict him of is stupidity," Harden quotes the man's lawyer as saying. I found this man's story a cautionary tale for all of us, particularly those accused of a crime.
It no longer really matters what this man did. He was not a hardened criminal. He did not commit some heinous atrocity. The only person this man hurt was himself. But the bottom line is that he now has a criminal record. His conviction cost him his wife, his children, his home, his medical license, his job, his ability to provide for himself. All the things by which he defined himself as a man and a member of society, gone. And all because he has a criminal record.
As Harden ends his column: "It just might be that, more bruising to the soul than being branded a wanted man, is to be branded as 'unwanted.'"
Not everyone convicted of a crime is a danger to society. Many convicted felons are later proved innocent, some after years in prison. Many others are more guilty of an error in judgment than anything else. Yet, once labeled a convict, society lumps them all together and assigns them to the lowest rung of society. By condemning them as untouchables, society often makes it impossible for paroled convicts to become productive members of society.
If you are accused of a crime in Los Angeles, don't settle for a guilty plea. Do not risk everything that is important to you in life without putting up the best possible fight. If you are charged with a crime, call the experienced, criminal defense experts of Rodriguez, Lewis & Kahn. They understand the law and the system and specialize exclusively in criminal defense. They're the pros you want in your corner.
