After I hit the cars with my dad’s van, Chuck pulled the sliding door open and took off running, I opened the driver’s door and started running too, my dad recognized my jacket and started yelling my name. I was wearing a blue jean jacket with a rolling stones patch on the back, my dad did not run after me, I ran for a few blocks and was out of the apartment complex when I stopped. I met up with Chuck by his house on Mortonview, we were both still super drunk, we hung out in the back yard for a little while and then he let me into the basement to go to sleep, I knew at this point I had to get out of the area, because Debbie would be trying to hunt me down and find me.
The next day I rode my bike back over to Eric’s house, I needed to keep low, I started to sleep in the car in the back yard again, and eating snickers candy bars at night, during the Day I would hang out at score lanes bowling alley, in the arcade room, I used to get into the back of the machines and get the quarters from the catch bucket inside the machines. Eric and a few other friends would keep look out for me, as I was getting into the back of the video games. After about 2 weeks I went back over to Chucks house and we hung out and his mom made food, then she went out to the bar, me and chuck smoked some pot and did some drinking, I fell asleep in the basement on the couch.
The next morning, I woke up and had 3 police officers standing over me. What I didn’t know at the time was that Chuck and his mom were responsible for turning me into the police, he had gotten caught stealing from a store, he was doing a beer run, and got chased down, and to get out of the trouble he had gotten himself into, he offered me up, his mom was a major part of it as well. The police put me into cuffs and took me to the Taylor Police station. They charged me with unlawfully driving away an automobile, and destruction of property, I was transferred to the Youth home, for 2 weeks and had a hearing. I plead guilty and was transferred back to Maxey boys training school. When I got back to Maxey, I was put into an isolation room, with my own toilet and bed. I spent 2 weeks inside the isolation room, and I was then transferred to Maximum custody facility across the street,
This place was called Green Oaks, when I got there, I was placed into another Isolation room or what would be called the hole. This room had a concrete slab for a bed, a toilet sink combo a light in the ceiling and a skylight window, the room was 8 foot long, and about 8 foot wide. I spent another 3 weeks in the hole before I was moved to unit G. I had spent 4 months on the run, and almost 2 months back in custody before I had some freedom back in the housing units. This unit was a lot different than any other placement I was at before, if you got into a fight, it was the hole you went to for a few weeks, you were served your meals through a slot in the metal door, you got a shower 3 days a week, and not much else. The programming was similar, but the other kid’s or inmates at this point did not go hands on, there were still group meetings and group leaders, who I believe had degrees in Social Work, each kid had to go through their life story, and get their respective list of problems to work on and understand, I once again never talked about the sexual assault that happened to me, I know that Group leader knew about it, but never addressed it with me or the group, I believe that he thought it was a repressed memory for me, and left that stone unturned. These kids I was locked up with could be very mean, vocally when pissed off, and it wasn’t something I felt comfortable talking about with a bunch of kids that could become an enemy in a moment’s notice.
After my escape and return, I was 2 months shy of my 16th birthday, I was eligible to study for the GED test, which I was allowed to take after I was 16 years old, we had classes every day, I also had a GED prep book in my room, that I was allowed to keep in my room, that I made a habit of studying even after classroom hours. The unit consisted of 2 civilian staff members, G hall or Unit had some very good staff, really laid back, the unspoken rule was to not cause problems, and we could do almost what we wanted during free time. We spent a lot of time playing cards with other kids, as well as the civilian staff. Spades was the main card game; we had chess boards and checkers and dominos. We didn’t have home visits, we had visiting days, as you worked closer to a release date you got more privileges.
In October, I turned 16, I had a busy weekend coming up, I was getting a visit from my mom, for my birthday, and I was taking my GED test’s that weekend, I was allowed to take all 5 of the tests in one weekend because of my pre test scores, most of the kids were only doing one test a weekend, if I failed any test I had to wait 4 weeks to retake the test I failed. The weekend came and I got down to the test proxy room, which was overseen by an outside teacher, I took 3 tests that Saturday, I wouldn’t know for 3 weeks when the official results were given to me. I flew through each test, after my tests, I waited for my mom to show up for visiting hours, my mom, sister, and grandmother all showed up. They brought some food and a little birthday cake; we had fun that day. The next day I took the last 2 tests, I flew through both of those tests, so much so that I remember the teacher overseeing the test asking me if I was sure I didn’t want to take more time to go back over the math test. I said no and went back to my housing unit.
About 3 weeks later the teacher that we had on unit every day stopped class one day, and made the announcement, she informed me and the rest of the kids, that I had not only passed the GED test, but that I also got the Highest GED average score for the whole state for the whole year, of 94% on all 5 test’s. This was by far the proudest moment I had ever had as a kid. She also told me that I was eligible to enroll in the college classes offered in the lower level of the facility. The Fall semester had already started for college classes, but she talked with the professors that was teaching the Data entry class, and the business accounting class, and got me into the classes. My first class with the two professor’s, they both told me that normally they didn’t allow kids to start later in their class’s, but because the teacher had talked me up and presented my GED test scores, they made an exception. I did extremely well in both classes and got A’s.
During this time in my life, I was getting a lot more interested in girls, I was always writing to my old girlfriend Tammy who I was now only friends with, and she told me that they had a reward for the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the fire at the high school. I thought about it and decided to tell her to turn me in, in hopes that she and her family would get the reward. I didn’t have anything to lose, I was locked up in Green Oaks till I was 18 at this point. So, she did with the help of her mom and a few weeks later the Detective’s from the Ecorse police department showed up at Green Oaks to interview me. I did not reveal why I told Tammy to turn me in, she knew beforehand that I had started the fire. But they asked me all the necessary questions to support my admission, I did not tell them who was with me at the time. I just admitted to what I had done. They told me that I would be hearing from them soon, and that was it. I never heard from them, the city of Ecorse was bankrupt, and couldn’t afford to pay out the ransom.
It was now the winter semester 1987 for the college classes, I really didn’t like the Data entry classes from last semester even through it was easy, I enjoyed the Business accounting class, the other class they offered were culinary arts, my winter semester I took the second business accounting class, and intro to culinary arts class. The professor for the cooking class was a Black Southern man, who had an emphasis on soul food, which was very interesting, and very fun. I excelled in his classes. Every semester I took a culinary arts class, and a core class, I had a 3.9 college GPA when I was released from Green Oaks.
I knew that I wasn’t going to be released to go home, I had already burned all the bridges John had built for me, my only option at this time was to do my time, escape wasn’t an option with this place, the security was too tight. I kept my nose clean, stayed out of trouble, and followed the program, I enjoyed the college classes, they were challenging, I was learning, as I worked through the program, I was given more privileges, at certain stages in the program the visiting day was a lot different, we were allowed to leave the property with our parents, if only for a few hours, but it was meant to allow us to get closer with our families. At some point we also were allowed to leave the facility with 2 staff members to go shopping for the rest of the kids, 3 kids who were ready for releases and 2 staff members, we did the shopping for the rest of the kids who had money on their accounts. I wasn’t going to be released until I was almost 18 years old, I knew this, I was told so by my Case worker John, so I made the best of my time.
During this time I had sent away for a list of possible pen pals, from the back of a teenage magazine, I wrote a lot of letters, then one day I got one back from a girl, in Vermont her name was Jan, we really hit it off, this was the fall of 1987, before my 17th birthday, I remember writing to her 4 or 5 days a week, waiting for the mail to be passed out everyday like a kid in the candy store. I never told her that I was locked up in a Juvenile detention center, I was afraid that she would reject me because of my status as a troubled kid. So, I kept my situation secret, she was younger than me, by 2 and a half years, we talked about all types of things, she didn’t seem younger than me, it always seemed that we were on the same page. I told her about college, and made-up other things to make it look like I was a free kid, I just really feared being rejected, I told her crazy stories about things I had done in my life, but never mentioned that they were mostly criminal in nature. Or that I had gotten in trouble for those things.
By the spring of 1988, I was taking an employment abilities skills classes at green oaks, the class taught you how to fill out job applications, and how to do job interviews, how to present yourself during an interview, how to respond to questions, how to write a resume. Skills that would be needed for the rest of my life. This class was offered to me as I was in my last month of my stay at Green Oaks, My release date was going to be in late May, but I was not going home, not to my mother’s house, or my dad’s house, it was discussed and I was in agreement with my case worker that I needed to be in a different environment all together, with a focus on getting a job and staying away from old friends. I was released to a halfway house in Lansing Michigan, a place I had never been and about a 2-hour drive from my normal home area.
The day came, and John showed up for the last time I would ever see him, we talked on the way to Lansing, it was about an hour drive, he gave me words of encouragement, and told me that if I ever needed to talk to just give him a call, he told me that before my 18th birthday he would be back to have me fill out some paperwork, before we parted ways he handed me my social security card and a copy of my birth certificate, and an envelope with what money I had in my account at Green Oaks which was a few hundred dollars. I went into the Half way house with John, I was welcomed in by the director, I was given a room assignment and told the basic rules, no drinking, no company, I had a curfew of 11 pm, unless I had a job in the evening, he also gave me a packet of papers that had additional house rules, I was required to find a job, and fill out a job seeker information paper to inform the half way house where I was applying for jobs and interviewing, all this was to keep me on track and make sure I was doing what I was supposed to do. The next day I started applying for jobs at restaurants, I had 5 culinary arts classes under my belt, I knew my way around a kitchen, I caught a bus to the East Lansing area, and filled out an application at a place called Mr. Taco, I made a few more stops and filled out more applications while I was out that way, I would just walk into places and ask if they were hiring, if they said yes, I would fill out the applications right there and hand then back. I had to give them the halfway house phone number to contact me, it was a line that was dedicated for the guys there to use for job searches only. If you were not there when a call came in for you, someone would take a message and put it under your door.
About 3 days after I filled out the application at Mr. Taco, I got a call from Mr. Taco, I missed the call by 30 minutes, I called back and set up an interview. The next day I went and interviewed with the manager, and he ran me through the basic questions about food temps and storage, had me show him my kitchen knife skills and asked me when I could start. I told him the next day. He gave me some shirts that I needed to wear to work the next day, and I went back to the halfway house. I called my mom, called my dad and I was very excited. My first week was training, with the assistant manager, I was going to be the morning cook who made all the Taco meat for each day, and well as making Taco salad bowls. After my training I had to be there at 5:30 am Monday through Friday and I got off at 2 in the afternoon. Monday through thurdays I had to make 500 pounds of taco meat each day for the daily service, and on Friday, I had to make 750 pounds of Taco meat to get ready for the weekend, they had a weekend cook that would come in later to make more, but they needed meat for the lunch rush on Saturday.
Three weeks later, I got another call for an interview for Taco bell at the Lansing mall, this job was only part time, and it was weekends and one afternoon shift a week. Which worked out fine, I was basically a prep cook at Taco bell. Things were going good for the next few months; I made friends and was staying out of trouble. During my free time from work, I would hang out by the river front in downtown Lansing, I didn’t want to be around the other kids, young adults at the halfway house, I spent as much time away from them as I could.
It was late August 1988, when one of my new friends asked me to join a party at his house on a Saturday, it was the last Saturday before school was about to start for the high school kids, I really only had one beer, when things went wrong, I was sitting on the front porch of my friends house, on a couch that had no legs on it, I was sitting and talking with a few girls and guys, one girl was sitting in front of me on the porch rail with her butt hanging over the rail. When a group of kids come walking down the street, there were about 12 boys and 5 girls in the group, one boy started to Cat call the girl who was siting on the porch, he was making disrespectful comments about how fat her butt was, and that he wanted to tap that ass. I spoke up while still sitting down and told him to keep walking, nobody was interested in him, he called me out, and im not sure if it was the beer, or trying to impress someone, or it was my anger issues, but I took the bait, and I got up and walked out to the street, and a few of the other guys followed me, all hell was about to break loose.
I got out to the street and me and this 15 year old kid started arguing back and forth, one of his friends was tying to get behind me to sucker punch me when on of the other kids with me hit the guy in the face, me and the one kid started fighting, and he ended up on the ground when I started to fight another kid, and then another kid, the girls were fighting the girls, more kids came out of the house I was at to help out, when the first kids got up and decided to try to rush me and grab me by the waist to try to lift me up and slam me on the ground. I grabbed him around the waist, lifted him up, and slammed him into the concrete street, headfirst. I didn’t realize that he was on the street seizing, I was fighting another kid, when his older 19-year-old brother came running down the street, he saw his brother on the street, and went straight for me, I was the biggest kid out there, I was 6 foot tall and about 180 pounds, I had spent years working out and doing pushups in my rooms locked up, it didn’t take me long to end the fight with the older brother. I heard the police sirens, and I ran into the house, and out the back door. I jumped a few fences, and I was about 3 blocks away when I heard the helicopter overhead, I was only a block away from the halfway house when I heard the helicopter. I got back to the halfway house I went to my room; I wasn’t past curfew because I had gotten permission to be out late because of work, which I had taken the day off anyway.
A few hours later, I was freaking out, I called over to my friends house to find out what happened after I left, they told me that the police was looking for me, the kid that I slammed on his head had to go to the hospital because of a head injury, I asked my friend if his mom would give me a ride out of town, but I didn’t want to go back to my home area, me and Jan had talked about me moving out by her, we decided to get me down to Toledo, at a truck stop, where I could get a ride with a trucker to Vermont. I packed my duffle bag with all my stuff and slipped out the window of the halfway house. I went back over to my friend’s house and got into a pickup truck, and we drove down to Toledo Ohio. During the drive the mom told me that there were about 13 state troopers, and county sheriffs that showed up for the fight, I told her I seen the helicopter. When we got to Toledo her husband got on the CB and found me a trucker that would give me a ride, east bound towards Vermont.