Since we know each other thereâs not really any catch up I need to fill you in on here. But a little backdrop information in case I havenât told you, I had a roommate recently and weâve been paying rent together in an apartment. The roommateâs a guy and weâre just work buddies not anything more significant to it.
But lately, last when you and I talked you shared with me that your dad had been released and I was so ecstatic about it! Ironically though EXACTLY a month after news of your dad released, I got arrested. I wasnât happy or proud of it so I debated with myself about sharing it with anyone. I kept it discreet because it definitely could affect potential job applications or even my current apartment rent status. You know me quite well.. Iâm not the kind of person to instigate a fight and that Iâd rather help people because I enjoy doing that. But getting arrested was a totally naĂŻve situation I walked into much like how your dad got framed.
I went to the apartment of a coworker of my ex-job to confront a suspicion I had of him possibly being responsible for vandalizing my belongings in a garage. The apartment I live in right now is the same complex he lives at and he works there as maintenance in the position that I worked but I got replaced when my supervisor saw his application. I wasnât doing a poor job but my learning curve was just too slow for my supervisor to keep me so he decided to replace me.
But back to what we were saying, I was suspicious that this new coworker, Billy Brown (is his name), was responsible for vandalizing stuff in my garage and the mess that it was left in looked more like someone who knew me than a random stranger coming by because nothing was stolen. Everything was still there. AND whoever was there left two cigarettes like they had been hanging out there for some time. How they managed to get inside was easy. The latch inside came loose and from the outside it wouldnât unlock anymore so I had to be careful not to lock it from the outside or I couldnât get back in. So the garage remained unlocked and his garage was right across from mine and his apartment right behind my garage. So you could definitely understand my suspicion there. If he was a nice person, I would feel reluctant to confront him but he was quite a dick personality the day I met him, bitching about how he was stuck with having custody of his daughter to the girlfriend he had gotten pregnant and abandoned.
So he got defensive when I asked him about my stuff in storage and when I refused to leave standing outside the doorstep, he called the cops on me (a very bold and naĂŻve move on my part). I wanted to see if the cops would get both sides of the story and see how theyâd handle the situation. But they only took his side once they got there because I put half of my foot across the threshold to keep him from closing the door and that gave me a Level 6 felony charge of Residential Entry. Not only that, but Billy felt that I barred him from leaving but I didnât keep him in and yet I was given a second Level 6 felony charge of Criminal Confinement. I spent the weekend in jail and was freaking out trying all the while not to show it because I didnât know anybodyâs number so I wasnât sure when I was ever going to be bailed out. Luckily my roommate found out where I was after some advice and looking around for me and posted bond with his amount of next monthâs rent payment he set aside.
When I got out, I was offered a plea deal of dropping the Criminal Confinement charge and reducing the Residential Entry to a Class A misdemeanor (which is still the most serious class of misdemeanors) as long as I completed 257 days of probation. I took the plea deal along with having to complete 12 weeks of anger management sessions and 30 hours of community service. I started my anger management class tonight and it meets weekly. But I still need to call around to begin my community service hours. As if the charges werenât serious enough for me to deal with along with the repercussions of those charges, this guy still didnât have enough of getting back at me for probably coming to his place. And also, the court had told me that I had a no contact order with him (to not have any direct or indirect - like not even through a third party - communication with him whether in person or in writing).
Yet, as fortunate as I was to still have my job when I got out, he came to my work at a gas station and harrassed me by going up to other various sales clerks I worked with there and insulting me in front of my face. I reported these incidences to my district manager and also filed a protective order at the court against him. The district manager barred him from returning to our store. So if he does he would be considered trespassing even in the parking lot. The court protective order basically did what that no contact order did that was given to me, since Billy didnât respect it at all. And I was concerned that with him working maintenance there, he would make any convenient excuse to enter my apartment without my permission to peek at my stuff as immature as heâs been. This is a terrible influence I think for him being a father figure to his daughter. I just only hope she doesnât grow up causing similar kind of mischief like he does.
I managed to repay my roommate by covering his side of rent for posting bond for me with his rent which was a $500 cash bond. We split $800 between the two of us for rent. So it was an extra hundred for him to make bail. But the court kept that bail instead of refunding him like they said because it had to go into my court fees (i.e. public defender fees, jail, court) but still left me with having to pay out of pocket for meeting with my probation officer ($60/month) and anger management sessions ($40/session). After covering for my roommateâs side of rent, I barely had anything left in my bank account.
And now just two Sundays ago, my roommate took off the day he told me he was leaving and went back to his hometown suggesting it would be for good to be back with a kid and girlfriend he left (so he says). He left me without paying off his bills (all under his name) and his side of rent leaving it all with me to deal with. Now Iâm really hurt financially and trying to work my ASS off just to see what I can do. Makes me cry practically every night but I still trying to keep my head up. I never went to ask help from parents while in jail or out of it with finances and Iâm still going to keep them out of the picture because theyâll be more of a burden than anything, unfortunately. My roommate had kindly took me in on his lease and let me cosign with him, helped cover food at times, split rent with me and even bailed me out but Iâd never suspect heâd bail out just like this. If I canât get enough hours to pay the fees Iâve collected now monthly, Iâll have to borrow and pay back the rest from a business that can lend to me.
I feel like an immense burden sharing this with you even though I trust you greatly and feel shamed about it as I lose sleep over it. And I donât really have the kind of tough skin to deal with this without showing how deeply affected I am by this whole situation. But while it hurts me to tell you about this, I feel that at the same time I donât really want to hide it and that this ironically relates to your situation I was just helping with when your dad was away. Iâm not asking for financial help just wanting to share wanting to share what I'm struggling through with someone I can trust.
I miss you a lot and have thought about you over and over going through my situation here.
