The Core

How is Ron?  I can't even imagine how he feels...if he feels anything.

So I showed up at the courthouse, along with maybe 60+(?) other people dressed in white memorial t-shirts, and stood in line to get a seat.  And there weren't enough.  They filled up the Victims side and spilled us over into the defendents side, and then finally asked 10 of us to step outside so that some people trying to sit on Ron's side came in.  No one wanted to leave, but since I was literally the last one to get in, I walked out, so that there wouldn't be an issue. Outside there were maybe another 20 of us that didn't make the cut.

Ron was at the far corner, sitting by himself, with no one close to him at all.  He looked straight ahead the entire time I was in the room, his face, expressionless, never once glancing anywhere but straight ahead.  His parents were there, along with some family, but that was about it.  His father, an extremely decorated military man was in formal attire.  I hear they are Masons.  I also know that once after partying with Ron, he drove away drunk with a friend of mine... and drove through some construction barriers until he slammed his car into a ditch, in FRONT of a cop.  He was NOT arrested.  At that point, we knew he had connections that went very deep... which is why we all aren't feeling too easy right now.  All mutual friends, sat on the side of the victim. Reza's widow looked horrible and seems to have aged considerably since I saw her last in January.  His mother was visibly shattered.

In the end, from what I hear, there was no decision, and we will have to wait a few days before they release the verdict.

I was friends with both. Reza was much closer to me by far. Ron trained w us too and we partied together. Remember, this is South Florida... the word 'friend' is used loosely here.

But Reza was a man among men. He was notable. His warmth filled the biggest of rooms. Ron, on the other hand, is a known thug. But a thug we thought that was on our side.

Not sure what to say... I think of myself as a good person and I look for the good in all people.... But I don't always hang with good people. I don't know how to explain myself. I wear a white hat under my black one and my friends are a diverse crowd. So in some ways this was a statistical certainty. It was also a surprise.  And the guy that died deserved it the least.

I definitely didnt bring it up here for you to feel bad for me. I posted it here because I didn't know what else to do. I also like people to see the best of what I see, as well as some of the worst. By showing both extremes, it's the only way I know to show you the balance, and that I don't spend my entire life in gummy bear land. 

Someone once said they wished they were me and it really shocked me, until I realized that I had always just showed him the best, and never the flipside, and the image I was projecting, while accurate, wasn't the whole story, and if they knew what I knew, they definitely would think twice before they said something like that.

I don't know. This really isn't about me.  I'm just here trying to make sense of it.

Ron was denied bond.

which one is you ?

He walked away, a free man.

I have absolutely no idea wtf happened, but they finally had a trial, and let him go.

His father was a high ranking officer in the Navy. They also said he was a high level Mason. Hard to say if favors were called in, but Ron shot an unarmed man, in front of his friends and family, then turned him self in, and (I thought) confessed, in a State that supposedly has mandatory minimum jail time for offenses with a firearms, and was let go.