This myspace gig has been cool enough all along as simply a mutual encouragement site ... but now it has taken on a whole new level of coolness! I had the honor of being called upon by a myspace friend to help his hurting son, a veteran drug addict at the ripe old age of 22. The young man was jammed up in the Bronx and two other counties close to NYC, Putnam and Westchester counties, on three significant felony prosecutions. He was locked up at the Rikers Island jail and had to be in court yesterday morning in the Bronx. I got to thinking:
Myspace - and the cyberspace friendships that developed from the blogs and exchanged messages over the months, helped to create the trust relationships that truly do allow for real encouragement in this thing we call life ... and yes, the myspace venue - and its entire network of friends in communication back and forth, can really be a mission field and ministry of sorts - just like the arena of personal injury and criminal defense, encouraging and helping people and eventually helping and uniting families; but now, in addition to simply encouraging one another and lifting each other up (1 Thes. 5:11), we can actually get on a plane, get our hands dirty and genuinely help one another on the streets, especially when the right combination of circumstances come together. Getting back to the Bronx:
That combination came together within an hour, thank God, and then we literally had about an hour from my law office in Fort Lauderdale, to make the airport and catch the flight to La Guardia; otherwise, my investigator and I would never have been able to meet the prosecutors and appear for the young man yesterday morning in the Bronx courthouse. We got the call Thursday, the father booked our flights and rooms, we quickly researched who to hire as local counsel on the ground (young hungry former prosecutors from the DA's office in the Bronx), had one of them meet us in the courtroom with bells on, and with his timely-filed legal motion, I was quickly admitted as attorney of record. The best part:
The Judge (the Honorable Laura Safer Espinoza, a wonderful jurist and person, by the way!) is naturally empathic and quite sensitive to addiction/recovery issues in general, and was very receptive to what we presented; so now, thank God, our young addict client will belatedly get the help he so desperately needs. Who would have known this - except our Heavenly Father of course. Wow:
Yes, it's true, the myspace venue - previously embraced as simply a mutual encouragement site, has now experientially morphed (to my way of thinking) into a community of actual friends who can genuinely help one another (even beyond words of encouragement!) in very real, practical and meaningful ways. That's what just happened:
Now I know from experience, that a 22 year old addict no longer has to go off to see the wizard; he can now stay out of prison, enjoy a bed in an in-patient treatment facility, receive real help and be reunited with family (thank God!) ... and to think we got it done within hours of cyberspace "friends" connecting on myspace. The reality feature (just as true) unfortunately:
Money helps, no doubt, insofar as an undertaking like this (including flights and room and a greatly reduced fee) can still be a little expensive and can't be put together within hours by just any dad; but suffice it to say that it was beyond awesome, to scramble and get it done in an affordable way for one of our very own myspace friends. (It also helped to have dad as a chauffer and extra set of wings around the city!) ... And not every dad (and the involved grandmother in this case too) knows to RESIST the huge and powerful temptation to quickly bond their son or grandson out of jail - and instead to spend the limited money on getting REAL help and "recovery" for their loved one ... and yet again, the right combination of heavenly-orchestrated players and circumstances came together ... and as they say on the street, "its all good."
Encouraging one another is still my favorite feature connected with the site - and it's often all we really need to do to lift one another up and be there for our fellows ... but when God provides for this additional privilege and opportunity to jump in the pool and be truly hands on, why it then takes this myspace gig to a whole new level of "wow."
Now flying home to Florida, I am
humbled by how He works,
John
Not so fast! ... continuing saga ..
5 days later
Broken heart … even as we get help!
I watched a tough guy get his heart broken yet again. We were springing the young man from Rikers Island today - straight to an in-patient recovery program, or so we thought. Not so fast, according to the knowledgeable and caring clinicians connected with the NYC treatment centers. We began to celebrate too early.
My client's father is a recovering addict, who enjoys his faith and sobriety today, thank God, and yet his 22 year old son is still active in his heroin addiction ... and the son, in the informed opinion of the expert clinicians who assessed him for placement in treatment, won't make it in recovery without methadone.
The problem is, most treatment centers outside the Bronx (and a couple other boroughs), won't dispense methadone - even though it's ostensibly designed to help the addict beat the heroin addiction; and because of its own addictive qualities and the addict's tendency to develop a dependence on the methadone itself, the policy of the DA's office is to oppose even the attempt to.... (enough of the problem; I will stay in the solution!) Bottom line:
The young man stays on Rikers Island until bed space is available at a treatment center - one that will dispense minimal, clinically-recommended and appropriate levels (where the addict can be weaned off the methadone over 12 months), and though the client is a very, very angry young man tonight - angry at his father for not posting his bail "to get out for the holidays," he will hopefully appreciate his dad's tough love down the road when he gets well, God willing.
It was nonetheless hard to see this tough old dad get his heart broke again today, as he saw and felt his son's seething rage (directed mostly at him, in courtroom stares), while we tried every which way in that Bronx courtroom (all day today!) to get a faster available bed in treatment. This wonderful Judge, the Honorable Laura Safer Espinoza, even did what she could on and off the bench - with the prosecution's consent and through her highly competent treatment staff of experts, to place the young man.
This new delay is not the result of a lack of coordinated effort; it's just one of those deals where everything must come together and coalesce at just the right time, with the right taxpayer funding, with the right bed in the right treatment center, even after all the legal-beagle machinations and procedures are hammered out in a plea agreement for treatment!
This lack of available bedspace, essentially means a couple more weeks on Rikers Island - known on the street as a Gotham City or Land of Darkness, according to reporter Kodi Barth. There are 10 jails on this "City of Jails" housing 15,000 inmates daily off the coast of the Bronx - and interestingly enough, two of them are literally floating jails, formerly old Staten Island ferries! The young client will actually keep getting his methadone right there in jail at Rikers, the only jail system in the country that will dispense methadone.
The good news: Though it's taking longer than all of us had hoped, it's all coming together in time to help us in other jurisdictions as well. All of this is designed to inure to the young client's benefit, insofar as we must soon appear in two other adjacent NY counties, to answer to two additional, unrelated pending prosecution cases over the next 30 days; but if all goes well (and as expected!), we ought to be able to structure a global, concurrent (i.e., simultaneous package deal) plea dispositions of all three cases; and then, assuming the scenario I visualize:
God willing, our young recovering addict will then be able to better focus on getting well, without the oppression of this myriad of felony drug prosecutions hanging over his head. All in that special "kairos" (God's perfect timing) moment, right? Please pray for this young man and his dad, both hurting for different reasons tonight.
John P. Contini & Associates, P.A.
1112 SE 3rd Ave.
Fort Lauderdale FL 33316
www.JohnContini.com
John@jpcontini.com
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