Saturday, February 27, 2010

The Breaking Of The Waters

It’s been about a week since I wrote last. And a busy week it has been. There has been quite a bit of activity among my family members and in my house overall. Needless to say, I have a lot to talk about.

For those of you that follow me on Facebook, the title of this post shouldn’t be a huge surprise. Kerry, my step-daughter, is in labor as I write this post. Her water broke about 12 hours ago and her labor started not long after. I’ve been in contact with Martha numerous times over the course of the day, and she tells me Kerry has been dealing with back labor, had to have Pitocin started because she couldn’t progress, and finally she had to resort to having an epidural block put in place.

She is not comfortable, but otherwise I get the impression that she’s doing okay. And she’s feeling better with the epidural. Last update I got from Martha is that Kerry is dilated at 5 centimeters. It’s slow progress, but it’s what is happening now and we all have to be patient.

As for the rest of the week, I spent most of it as a member of a jury sitting in on a criminal trial. The accused, a 68 year-old male, was tried on 4 counts of theft, 2 by deception and 2 by what is known as “unauthorized taking.” He defrauded a woman he had been involved with of approximately $25,000 – money he told her would be used for a business venture. He didn’t use the money for that. To that end, nobody is sure what it was used for.

There was decent physical evidence including the contracts for lines of credit that the defendant had persuaded his victim to open and then give him substantial amounts of cash out of them. There was also considerable testimony; the victim testified as did the branch managers of two financial institutions involved. The defendant’s parole officer also testified for the prosecution. That, in my mind, sealed it for the defendant.

In New Hampshire, any criminal defendant has the right to represent himself at trial. Defendants also have the right to not appear or mount a defense. This makes sense if you consider the “innocent until proven guilty” premise. This defendant, though, simply didn’t have the wherewithal to defend himself effectively. He was not stupid; in fact, he was very good at doing what he did, and I’ve been led to understand that he is a career criminal with previous fraud convictions in his background – information we didn’t have until after the verdict was rendered. In fact, he was found guilty on all 4 counts he was charged with.

Not a big surprise, all things considered.

As far as Kerry goes, once the baby is born and I have photos, I will post them. It is something I look forward to doing. Hopefully I’ll get to do this pretty soon.

2 comments:

Susie Hemingway said...

I've read your facebook and twitter so know that all is well with the birth of your grandchild.

Big HUGE congratulations to you and Martha. Now the big question, have you decided on what the new baby will call you? this is very important you know (smile)

Is it going to be the very English Grandad or perhaps like Hamada Grandpa - or Papa or Dada Walt or even Gramps? Do let us know, you are now a very very important person in a tiny babes life, how good is that!
Congrats from us here in the UK

Unknown said...

Thank you, Susie = both Martha and Kerry have already decided that this child will know me as "Papa Walt", which is fine with me. My maternal grandfather was my "Papa" -and he was one of the good guys - so as far as I'm concerned it is high regard indeed :)