Johnathan Morgan at the Burlington School for Boys The "Horrible Troubles"

By Rowlen Delaware Vanderstone III

ohnathan Morgan orphaned at 8, and in a private boarding school 10. This is a contemporary tale of young man at the cusp of graduating in his senior year at the boarding school. Our story opens with Johnathan facing a court trail accused of attempted murder of a fellow class mate. The drama opens with his guardian, who is his lawyer, and the Head Master of the Burlington School for Boy trying to convince the judge something is stinks in Demark and it is not the Kippers. Read on to find out how Johnathan got into this fix in the first place. It involves a bully, his inheritance, a mystery, and a pretty FBI profiler posing as a Psychologist at the school. Headline, stop the press, she really is a Psychologist and an FBI agent. Johnathan learns the value of friendship and trust and how 8 years living at the school has prepared him for his life as an adult. Meet his mates at school, and how they solve the mystery and reform their school antagonists. Well, those willing to be reformed. Burlington School for Boys is a progressive school for the wealthy sons of society where they learn the value of a good education and that money isn’t everything. In “Horrible Troubles” we have a corrupt prosecutor, a young Bully with a long family history of criminal activities. A decade old mystery hidden in the Attic, and a Head Master who encourages Johnathan and his mates to take things into their own hands to solve the mystery. This is, book one of a new series, Johnathan Morgan at the Burlington School for Boys, “The Horrible Troubles”, which just goes to say, “Horrible Troubles” can lead to “Terrible Troubles” in book two, (forthcoming) and who knows, maybe book three will be titled “Double the Trouble plus One”.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rowlen Delaware Vanderstone III
• Release date: Jan 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005810757

Rowlen Delaware Vanderstone III

I am a Award winning Poet, Writer, Artist, Sculptor, Pop Sociologist, an Inductee into the National Deans List, a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. I have been active in Community Service: Past Board Member of the Vine Neighborhood Association (3 terms), Membership Chair, Fund Raising Committee, Board secretary and interim Board Treasurer. Past member of the Recipient Rights Committee, County Mental Health Board. KVCC Public Museum Volunteer for 20 years. Involved in Community Theater for 50 years off and on most recent with the Kalamazoo Civic Theater since 1985. I have been apart of a Disaster Relief team for Hurricane Andrew in Florida helping feed 5000 people a day. I have be a home missionary worker with a local church administrating a shelter program for the homeless, Minister of the food Ministry, cook, and procurement of emergency food pantry items 1991-1992, I am a graduate of Kalamazoo Valley Community College 1998, Studies at Western Michigan University, Studies at Lansing Community College 1975, Graduate of Davenport College of Business 1974. Graduated Portland High School at age 21 in 1970. I was born in 1951 premature Twin with developmental issues, Learnings disabilities, and hearing impaired.

Book preview

Johnathan Morgan at Burlington School for Boys

And

The Horrible Troubles

By

Rowlen Delaware Vanderstone III

Copyright 12/16/2020

Smashword Edition

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Chapter 1

The Horrible Troubles

Our story opens up in a tense and crowded courtroom room of spectators, family members, and fellow comrades, and antagonists. Seated at the defendants table is a teen 16 years of age, a student at a local boarding school, Burlington School for Boys. Our teen is 5’10" athletically built, brown hair, and blue eyes. The Defendant head is wrapped in a bandage where he suffered a blow to the head and recalls nothing of the events that occurred and why he is in court as the defendant. His attorney is an older man, in his late 50’s, retired from a New York Law firm, and now the head master and owner of the Burlington School for Boys. His Grandfather before him was the founder of the Burlington School for Boys. Our Attorney is an alumnae of the Burlington School for Boys as was his Father before him. Our Teen Defendant is facing some serious charges of attempted murder of a fellow student at the School. The victim is in a coma in the hospital. In the courtroom there are family members of the defendants fellow classmates and best friends. Also, in the courtroom are several antagonist of the defendant. Two of which are key witnesses for the prosecution, claiming they witnessed the defendant willingly and willfully seek out the victim with a baseball bat with the full intention of murder. As in any small town, there are many spectators who’s only interest in the case is to relieve the boredom of living a small town.

Throughout the first week of the trial, the Judge has had to admonish the spectators to behave themselves or the courtroom will be off limits to spectators, only family members, and witnesses allowed. The prosecutor a man in his mid-30’s and recently appointed the county prosecutor in the eyes of many is seen as inexperienced, green around the gills and the only reason he was elected to the position was that his late Father before him was a prosecutor for the county, and his late grandfather a circuit Judge in the county. A favorite son of the county hierarchy of founding family and money. As for our defendant, Johnathan Morgan he is the product of a background of poverty and having the unfortunate circumstances of being raised by an elder Aunt, when the Johnathan’s parents were killed in a tenant fire while the boy at age 10 was at school. The Elder Aunt having the means and wealth to do so, but not the desire to have the boy underfoot in her home, sent the boy off to boarding school, where he spent 6 years being fostered at the Burlington School for Boys.

The Burlington School for Boys is an old school private boarding school for boys from well to do families with a long history of educating some bright lads who have gone on to college to have distinguished careers in Finance, Government service, Science, and Medicine. Burlington offered a curriculum of studies that would prep and prepare young boys and young men to achieve the foundation needed to enter college with a head start in their chosen collegiate studies. As a private prep school, Burlington was very successful in offering young boys their head starts in the latest schools of thought and theory with practical hands-on approach to learning, with the latest tools, texts, and forward-thinking teachers. The first 3 years of a youths studies concentrated on the basic 3 r’s with focus on developing a youths potential in specific fields of study. By age 13, the student would begin Two years of exploration in the area of Finance, Government services, the many branches of Science and Medicine. When that focus was fine tuned to a specific aptitude, the student would spent the next 3 years specializing in preparatory studies in the field. By the time they turned 18 the student would be well ahead of any first-year freshmen in College with certification of and college credits of pre-requisite course allowing a Burlington graduate to dive into more serious studies without worry of having to take remedial courses in their Freshmen and Sophomore years of college. A Burlington boy would often graduate college a head of others and many go on to Master programs to distinguish themselves in their fields. Burlington Alumni were successful Doctors, Finance wizards, Scientists, Lawyers and Judges, a few state and U.S. Representatives and Senators.

Henry Burlington the founder of the school in his times was a very progressive thinker and educator and modeled his school on the theory of preparing young minds at an early age with the tools needed to succeed in a highly technical advancing world. His Son Henry a Burlington alumni became a very successful Lawyer with his own firm and became a U.S. Senator. Who after leaving public office became Head Master of the school and his Son Henry also a Burlington alumni following in his Father’s footsteps took over the law firm and now retired from that law firm, is the current Head Master of the Burlington School for Boys. Three generations of Burlington’s have been Head Master of the school men who have continue to establish Burlington as a prestigious prep school for young boy and young men. In recent decades, the school has grown from its original 30 students to 110 students boys from the age of 10-18 in traditional grades from 5th grade to the 12th grade. The classes range from 5 students to 10 students per class. With teaching faculty of 15 teachers, covering basic education, higher education, and advanced studies. Four of the teaching staff are resident hall monitors, serving has hall masters of each respective age group of boys in the Resident Hall. The Resident Hall is a large Two-story building where the first floor houses the Kitchen, Dining room, Library and Administration, and First Aid and infirmary. The Second floor houses the resident rooms for each group of boys by age. Each room is set up for double occupancy with an adjoining Double room and shared bath. Depending on the number of students of each age group, you could find up to 4 boys per pair of rooms. With resident hall masters with their own rooms, there were 40 sets of rooms arranged in four sections of the Second Floor. The right wing and the Left wing segregating the age groups, from 10-12-, 13-14 and 15-16, 17-18. The left wing was the 10-12 and 13-14 boys, and the Right Wing was for the 15-16 and 17-18 boys of age. The four Resident staff monitors had their rooms at the head of each central hallway off the main staircase to each wing of the second floor. The hallway divided 10 sets of rooms on each side of the hallway. The resident staff monitors rooms where set up that the double set of rooms served as a single bed bedroom, and an Office/sitting room for the resident staff hall monitor. The Educational Hall was a separate modern building of two stories for all the classes and grades connected to the Resident Hall on the left, and the Athletic Hall was connected on the right of the Resident hall where the gymnasium, Locker/showers room, and Fitness center was. Burlington School for Boys believed that fit body was a fit mind intellectually, ethically, and morally when centered around sports, fair play, and competition. Spotted around the campus were cottages for bachelor teachers and support staff, and the family home of the Head Master. Many teachers and support staff with wife’s and families had homes off campus in Burlingville a small rural town two miles down the road from the school.

If not for Henry Burlington the Third, Head master and his Wife, taking the young orphan Johnathan Morgan under their wings, and the small circle of friends he acquired at the school. Our teen would have found these last 6 years a very trying time. He saw his Elder Aunt rarely, though she did make sure he had his needs met at the Burlington School for Boys. Just a year ago, his Elderly Aunt passed on and our teen came to the realization he was now a wealthy young man and would at age 18 have control of that wealth. Meanwhile, under the financial guardianship of the Head Master, and Trustee of the boys estate, was our lad able to continue his private schooling.

But all that was to come to an end when under the Aunts Will and Testament, and conditions of the trust, if our lad was to by his 18th birthday find himself in trouble with the law and convicted of a crime, any crime beyond a civil misdemeanor. His estate would revert to a distant 3rd cousin he never met. In the courtroom was his Trustee’s family in support of the lad. The other family was the parents of the victim, to support the prosecution and see that the defendant got what he deserved. Sadly, the victim a constant antagonist at the school and a member of a group of student antagonist at the school lays in a coma and it was feared that he may never wake up and succumb to his head injuries. The prosecution was seeking the harshest penalty possible at this time with a caveat that if the student should die, that new charges would be put forward of first-degree murder. One would think that given the testimony of witnesses this would be a slam dunk for the prosecutor. However, because the Defendant has no memory of the event where the witnesses claim they saw the lad, chasing the victim into the woods adjacent to the school with a ball bat in his hands, only to wonder out of the woods hours later with a head injury and the victim found later in the woods seriously injured. The Defendants lawyer did his best to convince the court and jury that his client has no memory of the event and that there where no, actual eyewitnesses of his client actually assaulting the victim with the ball bat outside of two students witnessing the defendant chasing after the victim into the woods. By their own admission none of these witnesses followed his client into the woods to stop or prevent any assault, yet these witnesses claimed that was the reason his client was entering the woods was to assault their comrade. There was also the issue of the timeframe as the witnesses were also present to witness his client leave the woods, as if they waited the two hours for his client to reappear. Rather than seek assistance from school staff to prevent any altercations between the victim and his client. The Defense questioned why these two students would hesitate to get help and why they hung around for two hours watching the woods?

The Defense argued that it was a known fact the victim and the witnesses where several times disciplined by the Disciplinary peer council of the school for antagonizing students at Burlington School for Boys, and as Head Master, he had to support the peer councils judgement and discipline the victim and his group for being bullies. It was also fact that the principal target of the victims bullying was his client and had been for several years since his client became a student at Burlington School for Boys. As for his clients behavior leading up to taking a Ball bat from the athletic locker and going into the woods. There are no witnesses that have come forward who saw his client actually take a ball bat from the locker, or the state of his clients behavior that would suggest he was in a rage and seeking to do bodily harm to the victim. Since the victim is unable to give testimony to who attacked him there is reasonable doubt that his client was the assailant as there are no witnesses to the attack, just a supposition by witnesses who by their own admission have admitted in this court that they have been up many times on disciplinary charges by the peer council for bullying his client and his fellow schoolmates. The Defense finale argument was that further investigation needs to be instituted to find more facts in this case to either support the witnesses claims or show that his client did not attack the victim as the witnesses suppose. The Defense had in the last day of the trial asked that the proceedings be postponed so that time could be given for his clients memory to return, and with all hopes that the victim will recover, and they would get his side of the story as well.

The Prosecution argued that since there were no other witnesses to come forward to counter claim the stories of the witnesses for the prosecution, and that the esteem Head Master and Defense attorney was prejudice has he was the defendants trustee of the Johnathan Morgan’s estate and should be excused from trying this case. The Prosecution brought up the fact that if the defendant lost his case and was found guilty that his client would lose a considerable about of wealth and it would revert to a distant relative per the condition of the trust his Aunt left him that if the lad were convicted of a serious crime before the age of 18. He would lose that inheritance. The defense was shocked that the Prosecution would know of this knowledge and clause in the defendants Aunts Will and Testimony as it was a sealed trust and not open to the public domain.

Now this triggered suspicion by the defense that this was a possible motive for why his client was in this predicament and that it was possible that his client was being framed by this distant relative. The Defense challenged the prosecutions claims of prejudice and questioned how the prosecution had this knowledge of sealed documents, suggesting to the judge that the prosecution has presented a strong motive that his client is being framed by someone who would benefit if his client were found guilty of a crime and would lose his inheritance. The prosecution tried to backtrack his statement, but the judge would not hear of it. The Defense held its position that further investigation was warranted, that to proceed now would only lead to a mistrial later if it should be proven that the inheritance issue was behind the whole affair and that his client was being set up. If justice was to be served all avenues of evidence needs to be exhausted, and as the prosecution seems to have knowledge of sealed documents and has opened the door of a possible motive for someone framing his client. The Defense last remark settled the Judges mind regarding a delay in these proceedings.

Your Honor, as a senior member of the bar. Experience is a benchmark, and my experience as a prosecutor and a defense attorney as shown me that for justices to be served fairly, rushing where only fools will go will not serve justice for my client. From the get-go the prosecution has pushed fervently for this trail to be speedy and over with, with only the testimony of witnesses for the victim. Bias witnesses to begin with. Any attempt on my part to have the time to gather further evidence has been met with objections after objections, as if the Prosecution wants this cased settled on a timeframe of his own devising. Given the fact that he has brought up the fact that my client faces losing a substantial inheritance, a piece of knowledge by any legal process of law he shouldn’t have. Is it not the purpose of justice that if I can prove any reasonable doubt that my client is innocent then you must consider that doubt and make judgement accordingly. As for the prosecution wanting to backtrack his statement regarding my clients inheritance and the disinheritance clause strongly suggest there can be a motive for fraud here by an unknown party. As the attorney for my clients late Aunt, and the firm I represented in creating that Will and Testament and Trust for Johnathan Morgan, also clearly states that the distant relative was to have no knowledge of the clause as this distance 3rd cousin is unaware of his or hers relationship to my late client. That knowledge is sealed in a vault at my law firm in New York. So, I strongly question the prosecutors reason for having the knowledge of this clause or how he obtained it in the first place. Which would make him prejudice and bias prosecuting this case and may even and I say may, also benefit him personally financially in prosecuting this case to a conclusion of guilty as charged.

I object your Honor, the defense is accusing me of prejudicial behavior and criminal malfeasance as a prosecutor. My knowledge of the inheritance clause and how I obtained it has no bearing on this case. It was willingly given me by an unknown person who claims they are the rightful heir and not this boy. The only reason I brought the matter up is to show that the Defense is bias and will personally lose financially. I have evidence that he has been embezzling from the boys estate and if his client is convicted he will no longer have the ability to hide that fact when the rightful heirs audit the estate and that is why the defendant tried to kill George Kribber in the woods, to protect this embezzlement from being revealed.

Your Honor, I request that the prosecutor present that evidence here and now, and reveal who gave him that evidence, or I shall petition this court for a mistrial and have the charges against my client tossed out. The defense demanded.

Oh, I have the evidence right here your Honor. As for who gave it to me that boy is right here in the courtroom. He is Billy Master, he took that evidence right out of the hands of George Kribber after he clubbed the defendant, then clubbed George Kribber in the woods, Kribber was giving the Defendant the evidence when Billy Master.... The courtroom went into an uproar, as the judge sat there at the bench with his gavel frozen in midair, as Billy Master, raced out of the courtroom before the bailiff could take action. Billy Master, the leader of the gang of antagonist, the most outspoken witness against the Defendant. The same witness who in court under oath said he and his mates never entered the woods to follow the Defendant who was chasing George Kribber. The same witness