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My first spell bottle

Last week, I made my first spell bottle. My luck had been going bad for a while, so I decided to make a spell bottle to try and balance things. I used dragon's blood incense, to balance my luck, lavender, to increase the chance of good luck, quartz points to amplify the dragon's blood and lavender, and finally a piece of snowflake obsidian to diminish my bad luck, all sealed by a white candle I had.

So far, I would say that my results have been successful. My luck has seemed to improve, and hopefully it will remain in a good balance. I know I can't entirely banish bad luck altogether, but if I can maintain a good balance between good and bad, I'm satisfied. 

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Rejoining the Tribe

Last weekend, I attended the comic culture expo. After four and a half years of being in the wilderness  (small town in Florida with no comic book /gaming stores ), I found myself back among my fellow geeks. For me,being among those who know how to speak geek, whether it's comics, video games or table top gaming, it was like coming home, or as I tell the mundanes I associate with, rejoining the tribe. Looking forward to hitting my first real Con in ages this July when I attend Hamacon,marking the return of the Goblin King  (a name I haven't used in almost 10 years ).

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Part 3:Aftermath

In 2010, shortly after I began my prison sentence, Huntsville had its first deadly school shooting. A former teacher at UAH, the main technical college, shot and killed some of her former colleagues. Presiding over her arraignment, none other than Alan Mann, now wearing judge's robes. A bit of quick mental calculation and I realized that Mann had gotten his judge ship shortly after I had been sentenced.  He threw me under the bus to get those robes. 

A couple of years later, Stacie informed me that she asked a lawyer named Larry Marsili to look into the possibility of some backroom shenanigans that may have contributed to my conviction. Also, she said that Laila had had a rough time after the trial. DHR had not given her any therapy and she had run away a couple of times. She was committed to a combination detention center / psych hospital in Birmingham.

When she next talked to me, she dropped one last bombshell : Garland Driver didn't just die, he committed suicide. In his suicide note, he confessed to sexually assaulting Laila, but claimed she " seduced " him. Now I knew why the prosecution was in such a panic and why Gann was so gung-ho to find me guilty. Stacie told Laila to write to Marsili. 

Marsili never got the letter,so he claimed. This led to a couple of possible conclusions : a ) either the letter never left the facility, or b ) Marsili gave the letter to DHR unread. Either way, DHR put the final nail in my coffin, because in the letter, Laila had told Marsili she was going to recant her testimony. 

As I finish my story, this is the aftermath. I was released from prison in March of 2014.Laila and I reconciled in October of that same year, I even got to dance with her at her first wedding. Unfortunately, Stacie and I divorced in June of 2018. I blame myself for the break up, since I had become angry and bitter about my treatment by the legal system. As for me, because of my charge, I'm homeless. 

My story also proves that there is no such thing as justice, since the guilty parties remain unpunished. 

T D H 

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Part 2: Disaster

In February of 2008, I came home from work and had my life turned upside down. Stacie informed me that at a SCAN presentation, Laila had told one of the presenters that I had molested her. I felt like I had been sucker punched. I curled up into a ball.The kids were taken to the grandparents house when the first bombshell hit. Laila was actually being molested by her older half brother Wolf. Wolf moved in with Stacie and me, while DHR took custody of the kids. 

The police officer in charge of the investigation was a Fred Sharp. Sharp turned out to be a homophobic bigot , referring to my transgender sister - in - law Beth Lyles as an " it ", as well as a bible thumper, who quoted the chestnut about not suffering a witch to live when I informed him that I was a Wiccan. As far as Sharp was concerned, I was guilty. No matter that Wolf had confessed, I was guilty of what my stepson did.

The DHR caseworker was one Carrie Pennman. She seemed to be convinced that we were white trash because of a dirty cat box. It seemed like she was there for show, that DHR wasn't conducting any kind of investigation. 

The kids were shuffled around a couple of foster homes before being assigned to a couple named the Drivers. Meanwhile, Ruzic walked into a New Jersey courtroom, told the judge that Stacie no longer had custody of the kids, and that therfore he was no longer obligated to pay child support. The judge reluctantly agreed. Ruzic then tried to take the kids out of the state, only to have DHR stop him at the airport. Ruzic then simply abandoned the kids and fled the country, never to return. 

I was arrested in late 2008,by US Marshalls. My father posted my bail. Now I needed a lawyer and since I couldn't afford one, mostly because my mother -in -law was not going to spend money on me, I had to go with a court appointed lawyer. I was assigned to D.Alan Mann. I knew a little about Mann's reputation, and it wasn't good. Mann was a showboat and a glory hound, caring more about seeing his name in print or his picture on the television. But I was stuck with him.

Unfortunately, my trek thru hell was just beginning. My mother and brother moved in with me and Stacie. My brother is a thug and my mother was a emotionally manipulative bitch. They also turned out to be free loading parasites. Having them around put a strain on my marriage. Finally, I had enough. I let the house get forclosed and this led to a fight with my brother that sent me to the ER. I wound up with bruised ribs, a serious shiner and a minor concussion. When I got back from the hospital, my mother informed me that if I pressed charges against my brother, my father would revoke my bail. I told my mother we were done, I'm an orphan. 

I went to trial in September of 2009. On the first day of the trial, I noticed that the prosecution side was in a panic. It seemed that Garland Driver , the foster father assigned to the kidshad died during the night. I didn't think much of it. The prosecutor was one Timothy Gann.  In his opening statement, he admitted that there was no photographic evidence, no forensic evidence, just Laila's statement. So Gann used character assassination, perjury from Fred Sharp ( claiming no contact with Ruzic, he used a phrase"snake worshipping cult " that was laughed out of New Jersey ), and a lot of hemming and hawwing from Carrie Pennman, he proceeded to make me out to be a monster. As I listened to them, I grew angrier and angrier. When it came time for the defense, Mann said the two words that you don't want to hear : " Defense rests ". I was furious. Mann gave me a lame excuse that the prosecution would punch holes in my story. 

I was found guilty and sentenced to ten years. 

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Part 1: how it began.

To put my story in context, I have to go back to the beginning. When I met Stacie in 1999, she had returned to Huntsville after spending seven years in New Jersey with one Phillip Charles Ruzic. Ruzic was an alcoholic and emotionally abusive. He was also the father of her two youngest children, Tim and Laila. Ruzic was also one those types who has to win at all costs, regardless of whose life he destroys in the process. After Stacie fled with the kids, Ruzic invoked a law that stated that she couldn't leave the state with his kids without his permission. This led to the first custody fight, which thanks to her lawyer bungling it,she lost. While she was given summer visitation, she had a clause put into the custody agreement that stated "if one parent is unable to fulfill his /her obligations, the other parent will be given full custody. " Stacie and I got married in 2001,which the kids got attend. It was becoming obvious that Ruzic's luck was going bad, first by illegally jacking his meter when the local utility co-op disconnected his meter for not paying his bill, then having to fight to keep his house for not paying the mortgage tax. The straw that broke the camel's back came in 2003, when the security fence was left open and the wires were disconnected from the meter,and Ruzic began shuffling the kids around various people he knew to keep the kids in school. Stacie and I went to New Jersey, and with a better lawyer, waged a second custody fight. 

This time around, Ruzic's luck went against him. Not only did judge reverse the custody arrangement, with us getting the kids for the school year and Ruzic getting them for the summer, he also had to pay 1300$ a month in child support. I should also add that Ruzic had fled New Jersey for Pennsylvania and because of his drinking problem, which he refused to acknowledge, he was often unemployed more than employed. By this time, Stacie and I decided to become home owners, since the kids were growing up and would need their own rooms. 

For a couple of years, things went fairly smoothly. The first time Ruzic fell behind in the child support, we alerted New Jersey and Ruzic was ordered to pay up. He paid about half. The second time he went into arrears, New Jersey sent us a letter telling us what the outcome would possibly be. In addition to paying off the full amount of child support, Ruzic was looking at a) a 6000$ fine b) a six month jail sentence or c) the fine and the jail sentence. Now Ruzic's luck had finally run out. If he got the jail sentence, New Jersey could then jail him for the complaint filed by the utility co-op for theft of utilities. Which would also kick in that clause from the first custody fight, which was added to the second fight, and he would still have to pay child support, but be stripped of his visitation rights.Ruzic did what he could to delay the court appearance, but he was finally ordered to appear in court to answer the charge. 

    But then the unthinkable happened. 

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My story

We all know how the story goes. An innocent man sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit, while his family works tirelessly to find the one piece of evidence that can free him. Justice prevails and he is freed. The end. 

                   This isn't that kind of story.

My story asks what if the person who is supposed to defend you in court instead throws you under the bus and is complacent in covering up a more serious crime. Also, my story asks how far would a state agency go in protecting itself, including stealing a letter to a lawyer. My story is a true one.