ANOTHER LOST FLORIDA CHILD

"A conviction of guilty was handed down and even though H.R.S. recommended I be sentenced as a youthful offender, I wasn't sentenced as such, nor was I sentenced as a Juvenile, but as an adult. He (the DA) was so happy that he hugged the dead man's mother and said, "Now that's Justice!"  ...Nobody was placing pressure for the justice of the kids."

Glenn "Black Hawk" Maynor
086859   Mail #F-3110U
Polk Correctional Institution
10800 Evans Road
Polk City, Florida 33868-6944
 

Dated 9/10/2001 - Postmarked 2/20/2002 - Reached me 1/6/03

Dear "Mom" (Kay Lee),

I am a prisoner at Polk CI.  I have been here at this prison for a little over one month and my 2nd week here I met a person by the name of Joey Hipp.  He is a nice guy 'so far'. Anyway, we talk a lot on the recreation field and one day he asked me about what I'm in prison for.  I told him the truth as best I could.

See, I couldn't always read nor write nor understand all of the stuff that was said by the adults in the courtroom.  Joey is a great listener.  It took a long long time to tell him everything that happened to me all those years ago when I was just a 14 year old kid.  When I was finished, he asked me about what happened to me over the last 19 plus years since I've been in here and what all has been filed in the courts for me since I've been in prison.  I told him what I could recall of my past over the years and what forms that was put in the courts and what was in them.

Anyway, he couldn't believe the story of my life, so I showed him some of the legal stuff that other prisoners filed for me.  They were prison law clerks at different prisons over the years.  Most only wanted what little money I had and when I couldn't give them anymore money, they would just send what they had already done and wouldn't help me anymore.  I can't blame them, I guess. 

I'm not very bright and it takes awhile to learn, but when I do learn, I don't forget it like I used to when I was a teenager.

Joey Hipp told me that I should write you cause you might know a person out there in the FREE WORLD who might help me talk to the courts so that I can go home to my mama.  is so old now.  I miss her a lot.  I haven't seen her in a long long time.  I love her with my whole heart.  She's my Moma!  One day when she can afford it she said she'll come and see me!  That would be great, huh?

I hope you can find someone to help me go home, but please don't be sad if you can't because moma said that sometimes people just can't help other people and that it's not that they don't want to, they just aren't able.  So, please, don't get sad if you can't find someone, ok?

I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you why I'm here at prison.  I'll do that now, ok? 

One day when I was about 14 years old, me and a friend named William, I call him Billy, was walking down the street when we stopped at a bus-stop to catch a bus to go to the beach.  I walked to the store across the street.  When I came back, Billy was gone.  I looked and found him in a car across the other side of the street talking to some man. I didn't go over there cause I didn't know this guy.  I waited at the bus stop for Billy and the bus. 

Sometime later, the guy in the car drove up and Billy was in the car with him.  Billy told me to get in the back seat.  I didn't want to sit in the car cause we was to get on the bus and go to the beach.  Billy and the guy talked me into going with them because the guy was going to take us for free and he was going to get us some beer. 

I liked beer and to smoke weed because it made me feel really happy and I love to laugh and that stuff made me laugh a whole lot.  The police say it's bad but my moma, grandma and all my aunts and uncles, everybody in my whole life I knew took it.  Moma said that rich folks don't like weed because the government can't tax it cause it grows anywhere.  That's so silly.  She said that they made it against the law and would put people in cages like the monkeys at the zoo if the police caught someone with it.  So I hid when I smoked it or drunk beer.  I didn't want to live in a cage no way!

When we got to the man's place, he made us wait in the back alley until he came and opened the back door to let us in.  He said that he didn't want the people that lived under his apartment to know that we was there cause they would call the law and tell the police that he was smoking weed.  So we waited and then quietly went up the stairs to his place.  It was almost like being in a tree house - it was so cool cause it was off the ground, way up there.

The guy brought us some booze in glasses and smoked a joint with us while we listened to music on the guy's radio.  He got us some more booze, but this time it tasted funny but it wasn't bad, so I drank it.

I don't remember falling asleep, but I guess that I did.  When I woke up, I was naked and all tied up.  I was alone, all by myself.  I was made dizzy a lot cause all the colors in the room was spinning.  The walls told me where my clothes were, and the couch told me how to untie myself.  Really, they did!  I eventually got untied and put my clothes back on.  I asked the couch and walls where Billy and the guy was.  They wouldn't tell me, I guessed they were mad at me.  The walls wouldn't talk to me after that - all they did was get real long and breath hard a lot.  It was real hard to walk.  I felt like I was on Acid, but I hadn't taken any.  I had before though, all the cool kids did acid - or so I thought then.

My feet felt like giant rocks that didn't want to move.  I made them move, eventually they didn't argue about it anymore. I was laughing at them when I heard whacking sounds from somewhere inside the place.  It took me awhile but I got the walls, my feet and the couch to be quiet so I could hear where it was coming from.  I don't know how long it took me but I eventually made it to a door that was closed and I could hear the sound coming from behind it.

When I opened the door, I saw the guy and Billy.  Billy was tied up like I had been.  The guy slapped Billy on the face.  Both of them was naked.  All I could do was stand there and watch what was going on.  The guy was behind Billy, sticking his dick in and out of Billy's butt while he was slapping him all over.  I realized something wasn't right - I had never seen anything like this happening before.  I got scared but could only stare.

Billy was out cold.  Blood was coming out of his nose or mouth and all over his butt and legs.  I was trying to scream "Stop it!" but couldn't talk.  I couldn't understand what was going on.  Then, when I looked back at Billy's face, I saw my little sister's face but it looked all busted up, like when that guy raped her.  She was 11 years old when it happened to her.  Then I looked back at the guy's face and it changed into the guy's face that raped my sister and suddenly I realized what he was doing to Billy.

Horrified, I turned around and ran right into the door jam.  The next thing I knew, I was stumbling to get my balance when a pain came in my head and I was knocked forward.  A second later the pain came again but this time I was knocked down to the floor.  When I rolled to a stop on my back, I saw a baseball bat coming at my head.  I moved my head and threw my arms up to cover my face.  The bat hit my arms and I grabbed it.  The guy had the other end of the bat.  I realized he was trying to hurt me and I really panicked - I freaked out - screamed "NO!" and charged him like a football tackler.

We bounced off a wall or two, then it seemed we was flying in the air.  As we fell, I heard a clunk sound, then we hit the floor.  I started swinging my arms at the guy and just knew I was a goner. But the naked guy wasn't trying to fight me anymore.  I backed off of him quickly and landed on my butt at the foot of the bed where Billy was at on the floor still tied up and unconscious.

The man wasn't moving.  I thought it was a trick, like the bad guys in the movies did after they fell down. They would wait until you looked the other way and that's when the bad guy in the scary movies would catch the kids and cut them up. 

Anyway, I snatched up the ball bat and stooped over him, waiting on him to move so I could whack him on the head to knock him out.  But he never moved.  I backed away from him after awhile and tripped over Billy's body and fell down. 

I had forgotten about Billy all this time that this was going on. Now, here I was, face to face with my best friend in the whole world.  He was out cold and naked on his side with blood coming slowly out of his mouth.  I said his name but he wouldn't wake up.  I threw down the bat and started trying to untie him.  Over and over I called his name, but he wouldn't wake up, and I don't know why but I started crying and couldn't get the ropes untied.

My mind was racing and I had trouble thinking of what to do.  So I just sat there, trying to untie Billy.  Then I remembered that I had a little pocketknife and could cut the knots off.  Laughing at my find, I went to look for my knife.  It was on the floor next to where my clothes were earlier.  I seen the long rope I was tied up with and got it.  I was going to tie the guy up so we could go tell my moma. You have to remember Mam, we were both just two 14 year old kids at the time. 

Anyway, I went back to the bedroom and sat down on the floor next to Billy and cut the knots off the rope he was tied up with. Billy was still out.  I shook him but he wouldn't wake up.  Frustrated and confused why he wouldn't wake up, I stood up and saw the guy again.  I snatched up the bat and ran over to him.  I stood over him again, but he didn't move so I dropped the bat and looked around and saw the bathroom. 

I remembered one time how my uncles had woke my moma up when she got too drunk one time.  So, I grabbed Billy, kind of picked him up and put him in the bathtub and turned the water on and started splashing it on him.  I was a big kid for my age so Billy wasn't that hard to place in the tub. 

Billy still wouldn't wake up.  I tried and tried and was crying again when he finally started coming to.  I was so excited that he woke up that I couldn't sit still anymore.  "We gotta go, Billy - we gotta go" was all I could say to him.

I helped him out of the tub.  That's when I was reminded he was naked.  I found a towel and gave it to Billy and ran to find him some clothes.  I found some in an open closet and took him some.  They were too big for him but he put them on.  We found Billy's shoes next to the foot of the bed so he started putting them on.  At this point, I couldn't stay still anymore.  "I gotta tell moma, Billy! I gotta go!  I can't stay!"  Voom! I bolted for the door.  "Wait for me," Billy yelled at me. 

I stopped, facing the doorway ready to run.  I heard a loud pop sound and Billy cried, "Look out!"  As I turned to face him, my head exploded in pain and in gushing stars and darkness as I felt my body slam into the wall and slide to the floor.  Shaking my head, trying to see and trying to figure out what was happening.  I heard all kinds of strange sounds of grunting and thudding and gagging sounds.

I was still shaking my head when my sight came back.  When I realized what was going on, my heart dropped to my toes.  That guy was standing over me with the bat again, but he wasn't trying to hit me.  That confused me until I saw why - Billy was on the guy's back choking him with one of the ropes we was tied up with and whack! he hit Billy over his shoulder with the bat.  I sprang from the floor, fists swinging at the guy with all the fear I had, until we all toppled on the bed.

The guy's eyes was huge and his face reddish-purple with anger, but he now was grabbing at Billy's hands.  Something was wrong, really wrong.  the guy was bleeding and bad too.  That's when I realized I still held the knife in my hand.  My hands was covered in blood.  A kick in my face from the guy took me out of my shock.  I remembered now that I never tied him up like I started to do earlier. 

I threw the knife on the bed and grabbed the ropes on the floor.  After some wrestling, I got his feet tied and remembered Billy was choking the guy.  The guy suddenly went limp.  I gabbed Billy's hands and pried them from the rope he was choking the guy with.  Crying, Billy let go.  The guy was big and it took us both to roll him off of Billy. 

When Billy got off the bed, he demanded that we tie the guy's hands behind his back.  So we turned him over again.  When we did, we saw my pocket knife sticking out of the middle of the man's back.  Billy snatched it out as I tied the guys hands up.  Blood was still coming out of the guy's neck from where I stabbed him until we fell.  I didn't know at the time that I was stabbing him.  All I knew was that I was swinging my fists as wild and as fast as I could to help my friend knock the guy back out.

Anyway, the guy was bleeding bad.  Billy seen what my eyes was locked on and started yelling, "Shit, shit, shit" and then punched the guy in the head.  The guy was apparently still choking cause it sounded like it.

Billy undone the rope around the guy's neck and blood shot all over me and the bed.  I don't know why, but Billy started crying and that made me cry.

Billy put the rope back on his neck and squeezed until the blood wasn't coming out that much.  He tied one end to the bed and the other to the towel rack in the bathroom.  I felt more at ease knowing that the guy wasn't bleeding as bad as he had been.  The guy was out cold, sleeping like a baby. 

Billy washed all the blood off my face and hands with a wet rag.  He also cleaned my pocket knife off and gave it back to me. Billy sent me into the living room to find his own clothes for him.  I went, but couldn't find them. 

I was still looking for them when Billy came out of the bedroom five or ten minutes later.  Billy said, "The guy said we can use his car to go to the beach and said that he was sorry for hurting us."  "Huh-uh," I told Billy, but Billy told me to go and ask him myself.  I wasn't going back in there for nothing.  Then Billy led me to the back door and told me to go and wait in the alley for him while he went to get the car. 

I was almost down the stairs when Billy opened the back door again.  At first, I thought it was that guy, but it wasn't.  Billy half yelled, half whispered, "Glenn, catch!" and he threw something but it hit a banister/rail and bounced back toward the house as it fell.  Whatever it was, I was not going to go get it.  I hit the last stair, ran, jumped the small gate, and ran down the alleyway. 

I was running for awhile before I stopped to catch my breath.  I wasn't thinking about Billy at all until he drove up in the guy's car.  I jumped in and we drove off.

The car was low on gas so he went to his cousin's house trying to get her to give him some gas money so that we could go to the beach.  I don't know what ll he said as I waited in the car.

We drove, got gas and headed for the beach.  Got lost somewhere in Arlington and drove until the gas went empty.  We walked all the way back to Springfield on foot.  As we crossed the Big Green Bridge, Billy took my knife and threw it in the river and gave me his.  I had a new knife so I was happy my friend gave it to me.

After that, Billy went home and so did I and it was about 1:30 in the afternoon when I got home.  I was going to tell my moma what happened to us, but I forgot to tell her cause she was drunk and angry at me for being out all night.  She was going to whip me, but I ran to my room and locked the door.  Moma was really mad and was trying to bust the door open.  I climbed out my bedroom window and slid down the kitchen's water pipes and ran away.

I went to the school and played on the swings and monkey bars for awhile and then went to the store.  Billy was there.  He bought us some cokes and told me to hang on to some stuff for him.  He gave me a set of keys and a pink slip of paper.  He said that he was going to be rich cause he was going to sell a car.  The pink paper was a Title to the car he was going to sell.

We went and played video games.  That's when a whole bunch of cops came and took me and Billy away to jail.  Billy had some drugs on him and we took them while we were in the cop's car so we wouldn't get caught with them.  There was some speed and acid and some Quaaludes.  He said that he got them from that guy that beat us up.

Billy made me promise not to tell anybody what that man was doing to him cause his dad would beat him up again.  I promised that I wouldn't tell anybody, not my mom, not the cops nor anybody else. 

When we got to the police station, the officers found the keys and pink paper that belonged to Billy.  Then the cops put us in a cell for awhile.  Then they came and got Billy and me and put us in different rooms.

I was in there for a long time before the cops came back to talk to me.  On the next few pages is my story of what happened to me from the arrest to the day I was sentenced to prison. 

This is an actual affidavit that was written for me word for word by a law clerk that used the affidavit in one of the motions that he filed for me.  I wasn't that smart so he did it for me and typed it up and everything.  Please read the affidavit now and then come back to finish reading this.

GLENN MAYNOR'S AFFIDAVIT
of Police Procedure

After being sentenced as an adult, I was put with the adults in the county pea-farm that very day and starting that day many many bad things has happened to me, but some good things too.  I won't go into all the bad stuff right now, but I will some of the good.

After I tried to run away from prison and was given 7 more years, something really cool happened! I was all beat up by the guards and crying in my cell when a 'spirit' came to see me.  He told me not to cry because I will start to learn things and begin to understand what was on those papers people kept having me to put my name on. 

The Spirit looked like a real old man, dressed in pretty clothes that had a lot of stuff stuck to them, like crystals, sea-shells, claws and stuff.  He sang some songs in a language I didn't know and he had a bunch of feathers in his headband.  He told me I had to become strong in mind and in spirit by learning what I can in school.  I complained to him that I didn't like school.  He told me that I didn't have to like it but I need to remember everything I could when I went to it. 

He told me a story about the Hawk is a messenger from "The Great One".  It was a good story!  I promised that I would learn all I could.  The Spirit sang another song, took a Hawk-feather out of his hair and gave it to me.  He said, "Lighten your heart, child.  We are watching over you."  Then he wiped a tear from my eye and he was gone.  I still have the feather that he gave me.  I liked him and he never told me who he was.  Moma said he is an angel.  She didn't have to say so but I knew she didn't believe me, so I never chose to show her the feather.

Anyway, after that I went to school.  I did what I promised.  I learned as much as I could.  The teachers at Sumter Prison gave me a high school diploma.  I was the only person in all my family to get one. Moma was very happy and so was my Grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins.  After I got one, everybody started trying to get theirs also.  Is that cool or what?  Some of them made it, the others gave up. 

I was put in a special school where I learned about all kinds of plants and when I finished that school, I was put in another one called 'Masonry Class' where I learned how to make buildings, archways, pillars, and B.B.Q. pits out of bricks or blocks.  Some guys paid for me to go to speech classes in a group called 'Toastmasters' and another one called 'Gavel Club'.  A friend of mine paid for me to go to a group called 'Jaycees of America'.  I learned bunches of stuff there.  The friend that paid for me to go died one day from the flu cause the doctors at the prison wouldn't treat him.  I'm sorry.  I said I wouldn't talk about the bad stuff.

Over the years, I learned a lot of stuff, mental, physical and spiritual.  I also found out that Billy turned state's evidence against me and made it look like I wanted that guy to die when I didn't.  :(  He said on the phone that his lawyer and parents made him say those things.  He lied and never told the truth about that night.  I know now Billy wasn't really my friend anymore cause he was going to help the prosecutor to kill me in the Electrick (sic) Chair. 

It took me a LONG time before I told the courts what happened to Billy that night and me.  They don't care.  Billy got mad when he found out that I was trying to tell the court what happened and he stopped writing me.  I still got the first letter he ever wrote me and promised to help get me out, but he was just talking cause he never helped me get a lawyer and I'm still in here.  He said he won't help me if I tell anyone what that man did to him.  I did, so he won't write me anymore.

For over five years, I worked in school helping people to learn how to write and read that didn't know how to.  My boss lady, Mrs. Franks, was a good teacher that cares for people like me that's in prison.  I miss working for her and helping those guys.  I was at Lake CI Prison for almost six years and worked in that school for almost the whole time I was there.  Now, I am here at Polk CI Prison cleaning showers - YUCK! 

Well, Mam, that's all I can think to tell you and the guy that's helping me do this is restless to stop so I'll close, ok?

Before I go, remember, don't be sad if nobody will help me cause sometimes people just can't.

Take good care of yourself and may your life always be joyful and beautiful.

With Loving Respect,
Always the Prisoner,
Glenn A. Maynor

My address is:
Glenn Maynor
# 086859 Mail # D-2105U
Polk Correctional Institute
10800 Evans Road
Polk City, FL  33868-6944

GLENN MAYNOR: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY

"There should be a sensitivity to the fact that a 14-year-old is not a little adult.
Florida governor Jeb Bush
 

"A Child is a terrible thing to waste!"

SB72 - Juvenile Law REsubmitted this term (2003)
by Senator Walter "Skip" Campbell

HAUNTING IMAGES

CHILDREN IN FLORIDA SYSTEM

FLORIDA MOMS WITH CHILDREN IN PRISON

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