I was talking to a chatter today and I realized how inspirational her story is and how it has uplifted me as long as I have known her. I have a story that may be inspirational and she encouraged me to share, so I will try.
When I became disabled, I was lost, as many are. Acceptance, lack of acceptance... About a year after my injury, a local tavern burned down, the owner was a friend of mine. The fire happened at just after four a.m. and he and his wife were sleeping at home (45 minutes away) where they had been they entire day and night. I was present at a walk thru three days after fire. This historic building was a total loss and it appeared to anyone with common sense that it started in electrical box.
Time passed, the insurance did not pay claim. We found out later that what they did was illegal but as you will find out, that did not matter. One month, two, three, six months, nothing but runaround. At seven months, he was arrested, arson with intent to defraud insurer. I must note at this point I knew this man many years, he is a retired marine, brutally honest, veteran of gulf war one, disabled and was in a picture that was on the cover of TIME magazine during the first gulf war. This was first time anyone had heard of any of this. It came as quite a shock to all and the building having been razed by city, there was no evidence left. He went to trial and needless to say, his lawyer underestimated the case and my friend was convicted.
I had asked my friend previously if he wanted my help but since he did not do it and there was no evidence, he did not need to worry about being convicted. Three experts all saying he did it and his lawyer giving no real defense changed that opinion. he changed lawyers at this time. Although extremely well meaning, had no experience and in the end, he did more damage than good. At this point, I got involved with the case.
I knew nothing of the actual case, so I had to learn. I started with the trial transcripts, 1000 pages of legal bliss... I did not know the law either, so, I had to learn quite a bit to understand it all. I dissected the transcripts, understood why there was a conviction, the three experts and no real defense. But.... it was all too easy, it just did not work, you cannot get a conviction this easy when it is so obvious that he did not do it, some thing was up...
The lawyer was getting nowhere, friend was already a convicted felon, this could not stand. First, I had to conduct my own investigation. I had to know everything, I mean everything, if I was going to figure it out and possibly do some help. I had to learn all the case detail, all the players, who they were and what part they played. I had to learn about many other things as well, electrical engineering, fire science, fire investigation, static electricity, effects of leakage from power utilities, the list goes on and on..
During the many legal hearings that there were, the insurance company announced that they were recouping their costs incurred for investigation, to the amount of about seventy thousand dollars. At this point, one of the very few legal things went our way, we asked and got discovery to prove the seventy thousand figure they came up with. Note, I need to say that only discovery there was from trial was fireman's pictures and the electrical box, which insurance company had and would not release as it was their property.
Upon going through the billing sheets from the lawyers office, I saw a pattern. In their zeal to come out with a zero loss on the whole affair, they gave us the entire conspiracy. All of the experts were hired by the insurance company and their trial testimony was paid for by the insurance company. Many illegal things were happening with the insurance company and with the district attorney and they gave us just enough to hang them if we went far enough.
I spent two years, hundreds of e-mails and phone calls before I found someone in the media who would talk to me. I am sure I was a weekly nightmare at many places but I found our advocate by accident, someone put me through to her with out checking.. It took me several months and endless incriminating evidence offered but she finally agreed to do a story on our plight. Five months later, they ran four front pages in a row, starting on Sunday. with many more follow up stories. At this point there was some national notice, the worm had turned....
With the lawyer about out of any kind of help, we got a new lawyer, one able to do job ad with the national coverage, we got the two best fire guys out there. We got a new hearing with the new experts, one wrote the fire investigation manual and the other was electrical guy who inspected electrical box, he found exact spot where short occurred. After they destroyed case and with all the meddling with insurance company, the judge exonerated him and set him free immediately. He was serving a three year sentence and was released three weeks before his normal release date.
This whole process took a total of seven years to do, from when I started till he won his settlement from insurance company. Aftermath; DA disappeared one day into legal oblivion in capitol, judge is gone, two lawyers retired, standard investigation manual rewritten to protect all insured homeowners from insurance company abuse, making many people safer. This is the first time I have told this story in public as it was unsafe to go after local government in a small community and I did all this anonymously. As issue is now over for a while and most of the bad guys are gone, i feel ok in talking about it. I invested about 5000 man hours. I am happy about the outcome and I am glad the right things happened in the end, it was worth it. I started coming to room shortly after I was not needed with that anymore....
So, you just spent all this time reading all of this, where is the inspiration? I am told it is because I did it all from my BED! Dude.
Inspiration, hopefully.....
Not hopefully - definitely inspiration.
Very glad you were able to help and change the fait of your friend. Completely uplifting in a day and age which that is rare. Congratulations on being able to learn and act on what you learned.
Yes Peacock, it is amazing what we can do when we decide to do it. We may be handicapped but with determination we aren't disabled. We are just able in a different way than others or for some of us different than we were before.