My Rant....

I had to go to court on a assault charge a couple of weeks ago. The first thing that pissed me off was that the fact that I got charged with assault in the first place...but lets not even go there. Then I get to court the first time and the DA decides that he wants to talk to the "victim" before he accepts an innocent plea. Fine...after talking to Sean the DA agrees that the whole thing is a misunderstanding and agrees to the innocent plea, the Judge however decided that she will dismiss the case ONLY on the condition that I go to Anger Management classes. Okay I can deal with that, the classes aren't going to hurt me and I might even learn something new. Life skills classes like this one can only help me in my career anyway. So I get the information from the court for these classes and the first thing they tell me is that the classes are about 70 bucks a class (I have to go to 6 of them) but that there is usually financial assistance available especially for people that had to have court appointed attorneys like myself. All of this seems okay...I mean 70 bucks a class seems a little steep but if I can spread them out over a couple of months than I should be able to deal with it. So I get home all happy that its over and I can move on .. I take these classes and there will be nothing on my record that would prevent me from being an LCDC. Yesterday I found out that only ONE place in Dallas offers the class, it meets only on tuesday and thursday nights (which is fine), the classes are 2 hours long, and ....here is the kicker...the cost is $545.00 that must be paid up front prior to the first class, and that there is NO financial assistance! WHAT? are you kidding me? If I had 545 bucks just laying around my house I wouldn't have had to have a court appointed Attorney in the first place. Are these People Crazy? So lets wrap it up...a case that I should not have gotten in the first place is going to cost me close 1000 dollars (bail and classes), and I was found innocent of the charges. What the hell would I have had to pay if they found me guilty? There is something very wrong with this picture and the only thing I can do about it is bitch and moan and then suck it up because I have no other choice! THE END...rant over