New Short Story! Kids for Cash

Kids for Cash





My lawyer spoke to the press, and said what I have been saying again and again, this trial was never about “kids for cash” as they called it. Then the woman screamed at me that her son was dead.
“My kids dead. It’s because of him. You ruined my fucking life. He shot himself in the heart. Do you remember me? Do you remember him? He was the all-star wrestler. Well, he’s dead. I hope you rot in hell! You scumbag killed my son!”
That was not part of the trial. If that had happened, do you think they government wouldn’t have tried me for that? Well, it never happened. If it had it would have been part of the trial. It wans’t. That’s because it never happened.
I’ve said this again and again. They never presented any evidence in regards to my accepting a dime to send a child to the detention centers. There was never a scrap of evidence about that in court. They also threw out the whole bit about Robert Powell. I’ve admitted to filing false tax returns, but there are these three words that have ruined my life and they never established in court that I ever did it. It wasn’t what the trial was over. Kids for cash. Once they came up with that term I was done for. It’s a catchy little phrase. Well, that wasn’t what the trial was about.
You know this whole thing destroyed me. You know for the months between the verdict and the sentencing I’ve been doing house painting? At 61, I’ve been a judge for years and they had me doing house painting. Well, yeah, I needed the money to eat on. Legal fees and all destroyed me. The house-painting thing in PA was bad enough, but now it’s time for 28 years in prison.
They say that though the boy was strong, a wrestling star, he was still really a child. They say after he was released from the detention center, he was never the same, and that eventually he shot himself in the heart.
I towed some cars, too. While I was doing that I heard people say “When are they going to put that damn Ciavarella in away?” Well, now they have.
Anyway…
It was Zubord the U.S. Attorney who came up with that whole “kids for cash” line. Then he never went after me for it. He said it was because it was a state matter.
I just want to bitch slap myself and say “Mark, what were you thinking?” 4,000 juvenile rulings thrown completely out of court.
I was a wealthy and powerful man here in Northeast Pennsylvania. This is not a wealthy part of the country. We have the Tea Party around here which tells you something about the socio-political demographics. For months, I became a laborer amongst laborers. And everybody knew my face, and a lot of people new about that woman who shouted at me at the courthouse.
Thanks, Zubord. Thank you for making me the anti-Christ with your little “kids for cash” line.
Asshole.
They got CPFEs and Forensic accountants down my throat like a motherfucking swarm of insects and what do they come up with? They come up with a finder’s fee from a privately owned detention center. That’s worth a man’s life? 28 years for that? But we all know what it really was about- it was really about this whole “kids for cash” thing they never even presented evidence of in court. It was just the poetics of the phrase- “kids for cash”. It roles of the tongue nicely, doesn’t it?
Three words ruined my life- kids for cash. Once they came up with that, my ride was through.