Rushing From Judgement
Thursday, August 14 2008 | Comments (0)
Facing hard time for forging checks, Melissa pulled a vanishing act at her sentencing hearing, bolting from the courthouse in broad daylight. (This is a previously un-aired, 4th season episode.)
Dog and Beth and the Da Kine crew are still in Colorado. This time they are searching for another of Bobby Brown's clients, Mellisa Lucero, who is accused of Motor Vehicle Theft, Forgery, and Criminal Impersonation. Melissa has already stood trial, but at the sentencing, anticipating a harsh sentence, she bolted from the court room. Despite a massive search that included copters and local police, Melissa managed to escape and is in hiding somewhere in Colorado Springs.
While they're at Bobby's office discussing the case, an informant calls to say she was his house the night before. Dog instructs him to get her back over to his house by whatever means and they will catch her there.
Beth thinks that Melissa looks like a young, scared, stupid girl. It's just dumb to run from the courthouse and think that she won't eventually be caught. She'll still have to face her sentencing and she's added escape to her original list of crimes.
Both Tim and Duane Lee think they have the upper hand in this chase. Melissa has probably found a safe house, but with everyone looking for her, the odds of someone turning her in are high.
Despite the easy first lead, the crew is already stumped as they can't reach their informant to confirm Melissa is back at his place. Bobby digs through his files to turn up other leads and they soon find one. Dog is soon on the phone with him, pretending to be a friend of Melissa's looking for her. He gets a lot of information through this ruse and soon knows who she was with the night before and what kind of car she is driving.
While searching the area for her, Bobby finally gets a hold of the original informant who says he knows right where she is. They rush over to the four-plex where she is supposedly hiding. And try to locate the apartment she is in. When they find it, they meet with some attitude from the resident, who says she was there that night, but hasn't been all day.
Dog thinks they fled just before they arrived: one of the cars the informant described is no longer there. Duane, Bobby, Leland and Baby Lyssa question some residents and Duane Lee finds someone who says they saw her only a half block away, on foot.
WHile they're checking though, Dog manages to get the informant on the phone and tries to strong-arm him, letting him know that others took cell phone pictures of him with Melissa last night and want to turn him in to his parole officer. If he doesn't help bring her in he could be considered an accomplice, but Dog would rather work with him and keep him out of trouble. He just has to tell Dog where she is.
The informant agrees to meet them and the crew heads over to a local gas station to meet up and follow his car to where Melissa is. He is to point to the apartment as he drives by. It turns out to be just a few doors away from where they were before.
The crew quickly surround the house and Dog stands in the parking lot, calling up to the window for her to give herself up peacefully. The door is locked and there is no back door. Beth calls up too, urging her to come out "before things get ugly."
Just then Kyle, the original informant, arrives. It's his house and he has the key to let them in. He seems angry with Dog, but wants to just "get it done and over with." They search the house and Melissa is nowhere to be found. Kyle swears he doesn't know where she is; he looks upset. "That's why I was over over at my other house. I don't want to do this man."
But Beth finds her in a back closet and the whole crew rushes to the room, knocking cameraman and sound techs out of the way. Tim wrestles her to the ground and cuffs her.
They lead her out to the van in front of the crowd of neighbors that has gathered. "As weird as it sounds," Melissa tells Lyssa once she's inside the van, "I feel better now." "You'd be surprised how often we hear that," Lyssa tells her. Kyle is still agonizing about turning in a friend ("You know I had to do this, but I can't do this."), but Beth reassures him it was the right thing to do.
They ask her why she ran and Melissa says she at first just went to the bathroom because she felt light headed. She kept telling herself, "I can't do this. I just can't do this. I've got to go get fresh air." Then she went outside and just kept going. It wasn't hard. "I used to be a mortgage broker. I had three beautiful kids, a beautiful house, a beautiful husband." But she and her husband started taking speed. He just got out of rehab; she defrauded an insurance company and is facing hard time.
Dog confronts her about her addiction. "You've got to say those three words 'I need help.'" He soon has her crying, realizing perhaps, that that is her only option: to swallow her pride and ask for help. Beth encourages her to be brave, face the judge, and admit she has a problem.
As they drop her off, Dog thinks that she can turn her life around if she just asks for, and accepts help. But that is betweeen her and God; Dog's job is just to catch her and make her face her situation, what she does after that is up to her.
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