One particular day in August, after I had purchased about eight or 10 cases of sodas, I proceeded to push the grocery cart off the premises to my residence two blocks around the corner. One of the female store clerks had already told the operators of Cash and Carry store, not to allow me to use the cart to take my sodas home. In spite of all the fuss, they usually did not make a fuss about us pushing the buggy off the premises, as long as we brought them back. I pleaded with the operator who had come out the store telling me that I could not take the cart off the premises, to take all the cases of soda home at once; nor could I leave them on the sidewalk, for fear that someone might steal them. Despite the unimportance of a shopping cart, that I knew I was wrong for taking off the premises after the operator specifically told me could not. Under the circumstances of more than I could carry sodas, I proceeded to push the cart to my residence, unloaded my goods, and immediately took the shopping cart back to the store. I expected to be greeted by the police when I brought the shopping cart back, but I walked back home, locked the door, sold one soda, and set down to watch television. As soon as I got comfortable, the police knocked on my door and arrested me for criminal trespassing. Feeling belittled by the incident of the store owner and clerk, who were trying to humiliate me, by forcing me to carry all those sodas home by hand; Furious, I saw an opportunity to ‘legally’ throw the first punch, and make some money.
On August 15, 2013, I filed a small claim in the Muscogee County Municipal Court. Case number: MC-2013-CV-8726.
With dress slacks, dress shirt, and tie, the respondents’ lawyer and I were the only two in the courtroom. The bailiff spoke to the judge concerning me, and his mentioning me added fuel to my already furious disposition. I knew I could not allow the good pressure that had always provoked me to do something physical or verbally curse people, to do something stupid in my time and what I must do. So, I channeled my energies, focusing on how I would present my evidence; starting with my opening statement. The Judge, Lawyer, Clerks, and Respondents, all thought what I was doing was a joke. Nevertheless, to me, it was a chance to dispel or change the view that Columbus Consolidated Government has of me, Mosi Wells. When the Respondents arrived, and things began to proceed, the Judge saw that I would not crack under the pressure of a local Defense Attorney Stacey Jackson. He came with his final and third tactic of pushing the procedural limits on a matter. The Solicitor General office would not close out the matter of criminal trespassing until after January 1, 2014, even though a judge had already ruled on the matter. Therefore, the small claims Judge would not hear my case until the Solicitor General’s office closed the matter of the criminal trespassing. Given all these facts, the Judge had appointed me a lawyer that I never knew I had and dismissed the case without prejudice due to lack of evidence.
I am not a lawyer, not even a jailhouse lawyer, and I have dealt with the system since I was 14. Like little Mac in Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, Columbus Consolidated Government is not the enemy, but they are my opponent, a much larger opponent that is not afraid of me, Mosi Wells. But it troubles them when my ability to demonstrate evidence in a courtroom defies their liberal views of young African-American men like myself if I am not in that courtroom for drugs, murder, or robbery.
