Keep It Warm, Baby
Dinner would be late most evenings.
Another news conference would be called, starring the loquacious leader of the Vera legal team, musing on every nuance involving his client.
But, oh, the stories we would hear, sitting on the floor, crosslegged, spellbound, mesmerized.
Worth the Ticket Price
I would pay an admission price every day for the privilege of coming to my office and pounding out more copy about the latest state of Vera affairs.
We would be entertained by soliloquies on why the formerly luckiest 42-year-old man in Culver City is about to start his third month in jail this weekend with no daylight in sight.
We would know all about Mr. Veras experiences with drugs.
What About Guns?
He has been in one drug diversion program, and his real life legal team is trying to channel him into another.
We would know about Mr. Veras fascination, or something like that, with firearms.
We would gain penetrating insights into Mr. Veras penchant for a certain police badge.
They Go Together
By law enforcement accounts, there never seems to be any daylight between Mr. Vera and his shiny badge.
We would know how, by the darnedest coincidence, a police radio mysteriously turned up in Mr. Veras presence.
It Belongs to
Cops said at the time they knew to whom the radio had been issued.
But follow-up has been an elusive concept when Mr. Vera and the law go nose-to-nose.
Why do I keep hearing squishing sounds?
Puff and Huff and Puff
Like much of what Mr. Vera has been accused of, the intriguing radio case blew away, unnoticed, unmourned, as quietly, as abstractly as yesterday afternoons puffy clouds.
I have heard it said that assembling a case against Mr. Vera is like putting snowballs on an overheated stove.
Who knows why they dry up without any overt accounting?
We have a couple of suspicions, but nah, they are too remote.
Offbeat Conversation
I had a conversation yesterday with the public defender representing Mr. Vera in the most recent case of seven felonies brought last month.
On Wednesday morning, the public defender attempted to convince a judge and the deputy District Attorney to forego the charges and dispatch Mr. Vera to drug court where a judge would evaluate his eligibility for another diversionary program.
Our dialogue felt Orwellian.
I asked him the basis for trying to send his client to drug court.
Anybody with Responsibility?
He said it was not his decision, that he is not knowledgeable or expert in drug court procedure or eligibility.
All I wanted to know was why.
The true answer was, We/I believe it would be beneficial to my client and desirably societally because
But we did not get that far.
Dreaming of What Could be
Now if Mr. Champion were Albert Vera Jr.s attorney, I would have to douse my keyboard with a bucket of ice water every morning.
