Once a Dog Always a Dog!

Chapter 14

  It was now the first week in June. Two weeks had passed since my nonperformance incident with Meagan, and what was wild was that since that incident she had started calling me more than ever, just as Chris had predicted she would do. Chris laughed his ass off at me when I told him what had went down between me and Meagan. But he reassured me that I just had a case of whiskey dick. "That shit happens to the best of us. But I guarantee you that Meagan is gonna be calling your ass much more now that that shit happened on her watch." I looked at Chris kinda confused. "See, you gotta understand that her head is gonna be fucked up. You walking around mad as hell at yourself because homeboy wouldn't work when you needed him to. But Meagan is walking around, feeling mad, inadequate, right now. She's feeling like she wasn't hot enough, she doesn't turn you on, her pussy is whack, all of that shit is running through her head. So until you fuck the hell out of her, she is gonna be calling you just to reassure herself that you're not completely done with her." I didn't think Chris was right at the time, but when Meagan started to call excessively and kept wanting us to go out and asking if she could come over again, I knew that Chris had hit the nail on the head. 

I would speak to Meagan on the phone at length, but not once did she bring up my whiskey dick. But I made sure to duck her and make excuses each time she tried to hook up with me. I ducked her for two reasons. One reason was because regardless of what Chris had been saying I still wanted to speak to my doctor so I could know for sure what the deal was with me and my limp dick syndrome. And the other reason that I had been ducking Meagan was because my lawyer had informed me that it was looking highly likely that we were going to be able to work out a favorable plea deal. I had been praying for a good outcome and I didn't want to jinx myself by messing with Meagan. It was funny how with me it always took some kind of tragic shit to get me to focus on doing what was right. But I had begun to pray like I had never prayed before. I prayed about five times a day for God's mercy concerning my case, and it was looking a lot like my prayers were gonna be answered. On June Eighteenth, almost six months to the day since I had the accident, my lawyer called me and told me to come into his office as soon as I could. When I hung up the phone with him, my heart was beating a mile a minute because I didn't know if he had good news for me or bad news. So without hesitation and without calling him back and asking him why he wanted me to come in, I had Chris come scoop me up and take me over to see him. 

"Mr. Wright," my lawyer said with a smile on his face when I walked into his office. "All I wanna hear is good news," I responded. "I learned from day one on this job that you always deliver good news in person and bad news over the phone. It usually works out better that way." I nodded my head and chuckled at my lawyer but I was ready for him to cut the small talk and get right to the matter at hand. "So it looks like we had an ace in the hole that'll keep you outta jail." Immediately a smile came across my face and I instantly felt some relief sweeping through my body. "Really? So what was the ace in the hole?" "Olivia Rodriguez's family," my attorney said as he got up from the conference table. "Apparently, Olivia's family is extremely religious and they came to the conclusion that this entire ordeal was God's will. They felt to recommend jail time for you would be undue justice and it would show vindictiveness on their part." When I heard those words, I almost fell off of my chair.  

"Are you serious?" My attorney nodded his head. "Well, what about the other family?" "They have the complete opposite disposition of the other family. They want jail time for you." "Really? But I mean I thought he had recovered and was doing much better," I said. I didn't know how to feel. I just couldn't understand how the family who had lost their family member could recommend no jail time, and the family with the survivor of the accident could want to go so hard. "That's definitely working in our favor, but I can tell you this and this is part of the reason why I asked you to come in I can tell you that the only way that they're gonna be willing to bend is based on dollars." "What do you mean?" "Kha'Darious, this is gonna come down to money. The family is being advised by an attorney and I'm sure this is a tactic for them to be able to up the ante." I was confused because I wasn't sure what my attorney was getting at. "Your car insurance policy is gonna pay out the max that they can pay out based on the limits of your policy. So after paying for Mr. Anderson's medical bills, the insurance company will have about a half a million dollars to split between the two families. 

And although two hundred fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money, how things are gonna be viewed by Mr. Anderson's family is that with no jail time, there really is no form of punishment that would cause the prevention of such accidents in the future. And therefore they'll want you to pay a staggering amount of money that will serve as a form of punishment for you." "Basically, you mean punitive damages?" My attorney nodded. "So when you say a staggering amount, what does that mean in terms of real money?" "Well, to put it in everyday language, it's gonna be an amount that breaks you." "Over seven figures?" "Definitely." "Whoa," I said. "Kha'Darious, you gotta look at it like this: Your accident took someone's life and hampered someone else's life in a major way. Then you have to look at the fact that you had a couple ready to get married and in a flash that's taken away, so all of those variables come with a value attached to it. And you also have to look at the fact that unless these charges are knocked down under a plea deal, you're looking at twenty five years in prison, and there is no dollar value that you can put on your freedom." 

My attorney wanted to get a snapshot picture of all of my assets so that he could see what I was working with and what my viability would be in terms of being able to compensate the victim's families. Like most people, a lot of my net worth was tied up in my house. My house was valued at 1.2 million and there was about four hundred and fifty thousand in equity in the house. I had a little over one hundred thousand in liquid cash, and I still had two luxury cars that I owned that together were worth over a hundred thousand. And then of course I had the books that I had written and the royalties that those books brought on a yearly basis. "I can tell you that I'll go as hard for you as I can and try to get them to take a half a million dollars, but they are gonna counter that by asking for a minimum of one million dollars." "But I don't have that. So does this mean that I have to sell my house and all the shit that I own?" "Well, not necessarily, but your lifestyle may change, make no mistake about that. You'll likely have to take out another mortgage on the property in order to pull out the equity, and your cars are gonna have to go." "But that still doesn't get me to the million dollar figure." "I understand that, and that is where we have a little leverage to keep you out of prison." 

"You're losing me," I said to my lawyer. "If we ultimately settle on one million dollars, you'll pay half of that in cash and the other half you'll pay over the course of five years. But what we'll argue is that you need to be out of prison to facilitate earning the money to pay off the settlement amount. Meaning if you're locked up, you can't properly promote your books, you'll likely never get another publishing contract, and therefore to send you to prison would punish you, but it wouldn't be an all encompassing punishment that also adequately served the needs of the victims." I paused for a moment and didn't say anything. All I could think about was how one decision, one bad decision on my part, was in an instant going to reverse a ton of hard work on my part. "Kha'Darious, twenty five years in prison is the alternative." I looked at him and I knew that I wasn't built for prison. As I sat there, I remem- ber the news stories right after the accident. I remember seeing the pain, hurt and anger that the family members of the victims had expressed at a few of the news conferences. In my heart, I knew that no amount of money would be just punish- ment for me, so if that was the only hardship that I would have to endure, then so be it. I would endure it and I would endure it, gracefully and humbly.