Convicted Felon

Meeting A Convicted Felon

Springfield High School

Springfield, PA

September 2005

When my father died, my boss never mentioned anything about his death, which was really unusual as my boss was always interested in my father’s career.  My father was a Federal Judge in Philadelphia.  In his career, he had a lot of high profile cases, which landed in the newspapers.  Surprisingly, many of my acquaintances assumed that I had inside information about many of his cases and they frequently came to me to seek my opinion about my father’s ruling.  I didn’t necessarily follow his career so I never knew how he ruled.

But he died suddenly on day in March and my boss never mentioned it to me.  Than two months later, he called me to his office to show me something.  It was a file on an applicant for a football coach.

“The application came in on the day your father died,” he tells me, “And look at the opening letter.”

On top of this person’ files was a letter from my father.  The applicant had been sentenced to a five-year jail sentence for a police brutality charge.  The young cop got caught in a difficulty case and the jury found all the cops in the case culpable of the changes. However, there were many people in the general public who didn’t think this young cop was guilty. My father was one of them.  So Denis received a lighter sentence than the other cops.  He served his time and now he was out and looking to pick up the broken pieces of his life.

He wanted to be a football coach at the school where I was the principal.  So he went to my father and got a letter to state that he served his sentence in full and without incident; that he had paid his debt to society and now wanted to move on from this aberration.

“It came in the day your dad died, isn’t that a coincident,” my boss tells me with delight.  “The committee decided that if we were serious about hiring him, we would talk to you first and if you weren’t comfortable with it, we wouldn’t hire him.  But we decided we weren’t interested in him.  But I saved his application because I thought you might want to meet him.  He seems like a good guy.  Want me to facilitate a meeting for the two of you?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  Here is a man who was sent to prison by my dad and my boss wants to know if I want to meet this man.

“No, of course not.  And don’t tell him that you know me,” I respond abruptly.

“What? Why?  You aren’t curious.  You don’t want to meet this guy? This is so cool.”

“No, absolutely not” I snap back.

“Why not? asks my boss, a little dumbfounded.

“Because my dad sent him to jail.  It’s a safety issue.  You don’t know what he could do to me.  You don’t know how mad he is with my father. I could get hurt. Don’t tell him anything about me”.

“Hum, I never thought about it that way.  I thought it would be a cool coincidence”.

“No it isn’t.  It’s a safety issue and what if he tells the other three.  They could come after me. Don’t ever tell this guy that you know me.”

I think my boss didn’t really see it my way but he understood that there would be no bonding meeting between the applicant and me.  So he never mentioned it again.

However, five months later, I am at school, late one evening, in my office, trying to catch up on paperwork.  There is a meeting of coaches going on in the auditorium so there is some noise in the hallways.  I didn’t think anything of it until one of the coaches appears at my door.

“Hey, I am so glad you’re here.  There is someone I want you to meet.  Denise, yea, she’s right here.  Yup, I told you that was her car.  Come on it.” He gestures to someone standing outside.

A man appears at the door.

“I want you to meet Denis. We told him all about you and your dad and he wanted to come in and meet you”.

It’s him, the football coach applicant that went to jail under my father’s direction.  Now he is in my office, face to face and with a confirmation of my car and work place and work habits.  I am livid.  I do not want anything to do with this man.  He holds no interest in me and I do not see what good can come from meeting him.  But he is moving forward and extending his hand to me.

“Denis got a job coaching at Upper Darby schools, thanks to your dad and he just wanted to say thank you”, Jack continues to tell me.

Denis tells me that he held my dad in high regard and was saddened to hear of his passing.

“I know the others don’t feel the same as I do about your dad.  But I know he did the best he could for me.  He treated me fairly and that’s all I wanted.

“You know, Denis, it was right after the Rodney King thing.  There was no room to find you innocent,” Jack tells both of us, sort of excusing my father’s decision.  I wanted to remind both of them that a jury found him guilty, not my dad.  My father just gave this man a lighter sentence than the others because my father didn’t think this guy was guilty.

“And I can’t thank him enough for that letter he wrote me.  I didn’t know how to approach the job market with a felon on my resume.  But someone mentioned that your dad was a standup guy and I should contact him.  So I did ask him to write that letter.  It has really been a help.” He is genuine in his words but I am still very uncomfortable with the situation that has been forced on me.

“But like I said,” he continues, “the other three may not feel that way about him.”

“Well look, I don’t want you to mention to them that you met me or where I work.  I’m concerned about my safety.”  I speak in a tone that lets him know that I am serious.  And he gets it immediately.

“Yes, yes, of course.  I don’t ever see those guys anymore and I won’t mention it to anyone.  Sorry, I hadn’t thought about how weird this would be for you.  I just am so grateful to your dad that I had to talk to someone in his family.  I’m sorry to have bothered you.”

Both men leave shorty thereafter and I am unnerved by the meeting.  In a small, unexplainable way, I feel violated and vulnerable.  I go home as well but not until their car is gone from the parking lot and there is no way they could see which way I will travel to get home.

This school year ends and a new year starts. It is the first day of school and I get an email from Denis.  He wants me to know that he finished his first year as a part time football coach and now he was hired as a full time teacher at a local high school.  Again he expressed his gratitude and asked me to convey his thanks to my siblings as well. He finished by promising me he would never contact me again and to date, he hasn’t.