Like A Criminal - (A Memoir)
()
About this ebook
From the Foreword:
I had the great fortune to be at the deathbed of both of my parents at that crucial moment when they passed many years ago. Not so with my sister who went very suddenly, but we had a twelve year age difference and were never close.
My brother and I were the best of friends for the forty some-odd years after I turned twenty, however. We lived together multiple times, as late as when I was in my mid fifties. We shared many common interests and could chat all day like school kids.
In January of this year he called to tell me had advanced cancer, had an operation scheduled for March, and was then going to undergo chemotherapy. He drove from his home near Atlanta to Sarasota Florida to visit with me and meet my recently acquired puppy at the end of February.
He did not look well, and after the too short visit it was difficult for me to not give up my job and home and go stay with him until the end, whenever that might be. We talked often over the next few months and I could tell his health was declining rapidly. In April the chemotherapy had proven to be too much for his system, so he stopped.
Then in late May my apartment manager called and told me the policy had changed, dogs were no longer allowed. The following morning my employer announced closure of my department and I was laid off. As sad as I was about those two events the excitement of going to be by Jack’s side was overwhelming. It was meant to be.
I hurriedly began preparing to move. I gave away furniture and inconsequential household things, pared down to the bare essentials. One week later, on May 29th, my work was close to done and I faced two days to relax and say my goodbyes to my many friends in Sarasota.
But perhaps due to a fit of self-importance, a young girl who kept her job with my ex-employer, Moreland Company USA headquartered out of Sarasota, falsified a police report when her network was down and the IT manager was on vacation.
I secured a copy of her witness statement after my eventual release. She accused me, as the programmer of the system that she and eight telemarketers had used, with a serious computer crime, a second degree felony. She wrote in her own handwriting that I removed the program from the computers but then states that the program was giving her messages that it could not connect to the local network. She wrote that I locked up eleven computers when it was indeed network failure.
I quote her next to last statement: “From this the main server from my department has become non-operational which forces us to shut down the department.” As I mentioned, the department had been closed a week before.
She is as computer savvy as the average user, yet chose to make a technical diagnosis in the absence of an experienced network administrator, who simply rebooted the server to restore operation once he returned to the office.
The investigating sheriff, apparently not a computer expert either, chose to act on this hearsay and arrested me that afternoon without a warrant. He could not have even seen evidence of a crime since one had not been committed. I spent ten days in jail. My $10,000 bail bond was eventually paid by order of the owner of the company that had me arrested.
My ex-manager, the network administrator, picked me up at the jail and drove me to a friend’s house, where all my stuff was. My puppy was in foster care. I was homeless but free. I sat outside to start calling the many friends who had been involved behind the scenes for me.
The first one listened for a minute then changed the course of the conversation. She told me that she had some “bad news about your brother”, and then told me that he had died in hospice two days before while I was locked up like a criminal.
Rushton Woodside
Born right at the mid-twentieth century point in Atlanta, still a sleepy southern city at that time. My mother's bookcase was filled with classics and I read them all before I was twelve, and re-read many. Steinbeck, Faulkner, Hemmingway and the like. For most of my life I have always had an active book going, if not two or three. Favorite types of books to read: Almost any genre of fiction, almost any non-fiction. I've travelled the country as a truck driver and as a rambler, and met thousands of people in thousands of circumstances. I've held dozens of jobs, from digging holes to making technical presentations in Board-rooms. I wrote a lot of poetry and songs as a teen. After a successful eight years writing computer programs and technical documentation I entered book retail, and stayed there for nearly twenty years. I read good books to know how to write, and read bad books on purpose to know how not to write. I completed my first novel in 2004 and it was published locally with great success. It was then that I got serious and studied many books on the craft, and began writing as often as possible. My seventh book is now in progress.
Read more from Rushton Woodside
Generations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPeace River Runaway Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuitman County Prison Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUtopian Ordeal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCowgirl Blues Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSarasota Bay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Like A Criminal - (A Memoir)
Related ebooks
The Murder of Meagan McFarlin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Found My Father in a Women's Prison Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFire and Ice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Am Redeemed: Christ in Me: Finding Victory Over Sexual Addiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLoose Ends Kill: Jim West Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJim Richards Murder Novels Box Set Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOcean's View Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Column Murder Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReflections From the Dating Pool Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCode Blue: An Oath to the Badge and Gun 3: Code Blue, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Miles Mitchell Mysteries: The PI with the Lifetime Pass to Disney World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn The Shadow Of The Past: City Crimes, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdvice From a Dead Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPretty Little Killer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDiscernment Undercovers: Bombshells of Yesterday, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bolivian Sailor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWithout Promise Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlease Don't Let Me Die: A Father’s Journey Through Grief and the Criminal Justice System Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSan Francisco Suite: A Rudy Parsons Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom the Outside of the Fence: What the Public Should Know About America’s Corrupt Penal System Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMafia to Mormon: My Conversion Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMemoirs of a Fraudster: Confessions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove Isn't Always the Answer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWild Hearts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEd Pinley: Paranormal Investigator Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDamsels Distressed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hidden Reality: A Science Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDALLAS COP Volume II More Than 400 True Short Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFanatic: Murder in the Genes, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFreedom Terminated with Malice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Biography & Memoir For You
The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mommie Dearest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Taste: My Life Through Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ivy League Counterfeiter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Disorganized Mind: Coaching Your ADHD Brain to Take Control of Your Time, Tasks, and Talents Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jack Reacher Reading Order: The Complete Lee Child’s Reading List Of Jack Reacher Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wright Brothers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Like A Criminal - (A Memoir)
0 ratings0 reviews