27. Hard Times: Wanted Man

Going back a bit, the last I had heard about Daniel, was on that day that I saw Eric and he had run away from the shelter the night before. I didn’t see or hear from him after that and didn’t expect to come into the situation I soon would.
The week after Jerome’s death, I was walking in town one day and I got a phone call from a lady from another organization. She asked me where I was and I told her I was in town. She asked me if any police were around me and I said that I didn’t see any. She told me that a detective had just phoned their office, wondering if they knew where I was because there was a warrant out for my arrest.
She told me I should come to their office as soon as possible to call the police and try to figure out what was going on.
When I got to the office, we called the police station. Sure enough, there was a warrant out for my arrest. They informed me that they had been looking for me to make the arrest.
I was confused.
I inquired about what exactly the warrant was for and they told me that because I was the guardian of Daniel it was my responsibility to get him to his court dates.
Because he didn’t appear at his last court date, they wanted to arrest me.
I explained the whole situation of how I agreed to be his guardian for court purposes only and that at the time I said I could not guarantee that he would even come to court.
With help from some friends we eventually managed to clear things up.
That only meant that they would not take the warrant too seriously and they would not arrest me. I still had to go to court and have the warrant removed.
My one friend, Faizel, was extremely worried about the whole thing. He and a couple of other friends came with me the next day to go to court.
We went to the court that the boys normally go to.
I have sat for MANY hours in that building for different cases for different kids! I am amazed at the lack of follow-up and the incompetence of the children’s court.
The kids come in and out of there for all types of offences.
They often use other names and some kids have five to ten cases that have never been fully resolved, all under different names! I eventually had to stop going to court with the boys because every time I would go, I would see at least three or more other kids I knew there.
I could go to court every day and find a kid that I know there. I had to eventually make a decision that I would only go to the court with a kid for rare and desperate situations, like that of Daniel’s.
When we went in and asked where we were supposed to go, we were informed that my case was not in the small time court, that I was use to and, but because it was such a big case, I had to go to the Regional Court.
They had turned me into a big time criminal!
We went in and waited outside the courtroom until they called me in. We went in and sat down. It was dead quiet in the courtroom.
The judge sat quietly and looked over the dockets.
He eventually peered over his spectacles and asked that Nicholas Ryan Dalton step forward to the stand. I did as ordered. When I stood up there he said, “Let me get this straight.
You work with the street kids. You agreed to stand as the kids’ legal guardian. He didn’t show up to the last court case and now they want to arrest you?”
I said, “Yes, that is true.”
He said, “Is there anything you have to say for yourself?”
I could now see that he was not taking this case very seriously. I explained, “Well, though I agreed to be his legal guardian, I made it very clear to the magistrate that it would ONLY be for court purposes.
“I informed her that he was staying in a shelter and I was not responsible for him outside of court, and could not even guarantee that he would come to the court case. I only agreed because his foster mother said that she did not care about him anymore and refused to come to his court case, and I only agreed to be his guardian if he was in court.”
The judge smiled and said that it was the most ridiculous case he has ever seen and I openly agreed with him. He congratulated me on being a free man again and we left the courtroom.
I managed to find humor in the whole situation, but it did come in the middle of some pretty hectic times.
For me, it was once again a picture of the lack of follow-up and the miscommunication problems of the court system. As ridiculous as the whole situation was, it did provide me with a great story to tell!
I love to just mention in passing that there was once a warrant out for my arrest. I also thought it was pretty funny because I can imagine a few of the police officers that I have butted heads with over the years that would have loved to have arrested me had they been given the opportunity.