Happy 18TH BDAY

Time flies by so quickly it’s crazy!! It seems like just last week I was not even old enough to buy alcohol from the stores and now, at 32, if I am not carded at the store it no doubt offends me!! when I was 18 I was involved with the crowd of people that wpould change my life forever. It wasn’t even a month after my 18th birthday and I was hanging out with my bestfriend Lil Steve. We called him “lil Steve” because of his height and weight and basically he was just litttle for his age and had always been smaller than the rest of his class.

My phone rang. ”Markie can you bring something over to Green Briar Apartments for me?” Phet asked me?” “Something doesn’t feel right to me.” These statements should’ve told me right then and there, DON’T DO THIS MARKIE!!!!” But nope, that was not the thought swirling around my brain. Instead I was thinking to myself, “Free drugs, heck ya!!!” You see addiction has always been a problem for me ever since I can remember. At age five my mom said she remembers me in the back woods behind our house trying to figure out how to light cigarette butts. I don’t remember this, although I do remember growing up trying to puff on unlit cigarette butts on grandma’s headboard. I’ve always had impulse issues and addictions to substances or shopping habits that weren’t the most budget friendly.

So back to the night of the “sale.” I wasn’t thinking I was in danger that evening at all. I grabbed the stuff from the guy and headed over to the place he had asked me to go to. The apartment belonged to this girl that was a mutual friend of Phet and mines, her name was Blythe. When I got to her apartment she let me inside and directed me into the living room to do the deal with this random new guy sitting on her couch. “Give the stuff to him.” She directed. So I did. I was 18 and about to score some free MDMA or extacsy and maybe some ice too or for those of you unfamiliar with that term, “ice” is Methaphetamie. I sold the man two pills and one gram of ice and he left. Not even five minutes after I did that deal there was a knock at Blythe’s door and for some odd reason I automatically knew that it was going to be the police on the other side of the door. “Wait!!” I whispered to Blythe. She did not. As soon as the door was opened I was instructed to place my hands behind my back, I was under arrest.

I wasn’t under the impression that I had done anything seriously wrong like “delivery and manufacturing Methamphetamines,” I had not A clue....once I was in the jail getting “booked” into the jail I was told the severity of the charges that I was being charged with. Two 20 YEAR FELONIES!!! I was lost for words. I didn’t know what to do who to talk to or what I was about to go through at such the young age of 18.

Two WEMET detectives came to me in the jail and explained to me that if I was willing to work for them I would be able to reduce and possibly even eliminate my criminal charges. I thought I was so smart and decided I would tell them that I could in fact do this “work” for them but it wouldn’t be possible from inside the jail that I would need to be released and then I would “see what I could do” So the judge granted me a $300 bond on two 20 year felonies and I was free!! I threw the detectives business cards out of the car window on the was home that day and never thought of that conversation again. At least not for the next 6 months.

Fast forward six months later and I was in court in front of the judge, the same judge whom granted me the low low bond six months ago. I was being looked at that day like I was the “SCUM OF THE EARTH” and I was remanded by the baliff directed towards the all hated jail holding cell door. I was devastated! Off to the county jail I went and I sat there for 2 months waiting to be sentenced for my crimes and to be completely honest, me having a $10,000 retained attorney, didn’t feel that concerned about the outcome of this charge.

Basically my first adult offense, hired attorney, time in jail already served at the time of my sentencing, I was golden, or at least that’s what I thought. It wasn’t hard to feel that way especially having my attorney in my and my families ears saying I was going to get 6 months in jail and three years probation. The day of my sentencing my attorney was late. 20 Minutes late to be exact. When he finally arrived to the court room the judge indicated that because he wasn’t present before my sentencing to speak to him in his chambers, that he would then, at that moment be granted that time in the chambers to speak to the judge. My attorney declined that chance to talk to the judge and my sentencing would then proceed. WTF??!! Judge Post then looked at me and asked me if there was anything that I wanted to say to the court before i was to be sentenced. I in fact did have a statement ready to read at that point and so I began to speak: “I have a problem your honor, I’m an addict and I need help.” I explained. “My Grandma is on oxygen and I am her caregiver. I need to get out of jail so I can continue to care for my grandma and feel I would benefit from some serious out patient classses for my drug and alcohol issues.” “Well Miss Rutherford,” The judge began. “If this was a possession charge I might have thought about some sort of rehabilitation treatment for you but this isn’t that, YOU RUIN PEOPLE’S LIVES!!” My face at this point was mouth wide open in absolute shock. “That being said I am sentencing you to MDOC for the period of 24 to 240 months, go with the bailiff!” The gavel slammed down in front of the judge and I was hauled off to the holding cells to await transportation to PRISON.

My dad was furious, he hurried off to the parking lot to smoke a cigarette and saw my attorney in the parking lot. If it was for a court appointed attorney out there smoking at that time stopping him from approaching my paid attorney, Dad would’ve been right there next to me in the jail. It was about two weeks after my sentencing that I was finally transported to the women’s prison in Plymouth MI. In total I served 367 days away from home in jail, prison and boot camp before I finally was released. I would say “No regrets” but to be %100 honest with my readers that life lesson was one of the hardest ones I have ever experienced in my life and I do absolutely regret some of the decisions that I made throughout that criminal charge period of time in my life. I am not sure what life would’ve held for me had I not become a convict as soon as I became an adult but I feel that everything happens for a reason and even me going to prison at 18 and having accumulated a felony criminal record right out the adult gate, was meant to be I suppose it s safe to say, “NO REGRETS!”