I’m sure I was aware that exchanging the phone would mean Rita would not have a contact number for me again. However, I suppose I’d changed my mind, and I thought this was better than going through being arrested again. Again, this period’s memories are blurry from stress, Effexor-induced mania, sleep deprivation, and turmoil. Had I wanted to harass Rita with text messages, I could have bought a pre-paid “burner” phone that would have been impossible to track back to me.
My bail this time was not unsecured and set at $5,000. Not knowing how to contact a bail bond agent from jail or anyone else, I was processed and became an inmate at the Centre County Correctional Facility (CCCF) for the first time. The image gallery shows the commitment order issued by a district magistrate.
The court hears PFA violation cases every two weeks, so I believe I spent about a week in jail before my hearing. I had never interacted with other inmates, and at first, it was a little intimidating. However, I quickly realized the worst part about being in county jail is the boredom, not the other inmates.
I am taken, handcuffed, and shackled to the courthouse for my hearing again in front of Judge Ruest. My attorney was still on vacation, so her partner scrambled to fill in again. At this hearing is when I started to understand the protection from abuse system in Pennsylvania. The district attorney argued the case for the plaintiff/state like in a criminal trial. I think this was also the first time I encountered the district attorney, Stacy Parks Miller. She will come up a lot throughout the rest of this book.
Stacy argued that I’m some maniac that a psychiatric hospital had just released, that I’m dangerous, and there’s no telling what I’ll do next. This fear-of-the-future argument will come up again and again in hearings, i.e., “There’s no telling what he might do next.” There is no way to predict what a person might do in the future, as even that person doesn’t know. All I can say is that I’ve never done anything violent and have no plans to do so. Unfortunately, my attorney, who didn’t know me, could not counter the DA’s claims. I talk much about the ‘preventative’ culture that society has developed in the book.
The other argument I heard from the DA for the first of many times is that I should be convicted, not because I did anything violent or abusive, but because in violating the order, I disrespected the court’s authority, i.e., the contempt of court angle. At that point, I did not have a great deal of contempt for the court in Centre County. Although, I thought there was no reason for them to have put an order in place, and the court had not given me much opportunity to defend myself.