30 years as a prosecutor here. I’ve seen lower bails on worse homicides.

Falcon,

Understood on your concern, but I don’t give specifics because I don’t want to ID other people involved, or even name what agency I work for. It’s not exactly a secret, but I have to make sure I don’t even give the impression that I represent my department. If we were sitting face to face I could give you names of other officers on the scene, the name of the supervisor who mirandized the woman (and who is still on the street as a higher level supervisor now), the approximate date and location, etc. But I don’t put information that specific on the blog.

We also found it hard to believe that the woman got a 30K bond, especially since defendants only have to come up with a percentage of that amount to get out of jail. But at that time, that was the standard bond for a 1st time felony charge. This was over ten years ago, and things have changed since then.

I absolutely get your point about not knowing if I’m full of crap or not. Very few of my stories can be independently verified without a lot of research. Certain stories, like “Even God Hates Us” can be partially verified by checking casualty reports on web sites like icasualty.com, but the rest of the story isn’t anywhere but in my memory.

I’ve met lots of guys who were FOS, so I get where you’re coming from. Since the war on terror started I’ve met more Special Forces guys than have ever existed in any army in history. It’s pretty funny when a wrecker driver tells you he was such a good shot in boot camp that he was pulled out and put directly into SF. All I can tell you is, my stories are real, without embellishment. If we ever meet in person, I’d be happy to give you more verifiable details. But here on the blog, you pretty much have to make a decision whether or not to believe it just based on the stories’ merits. I hope you hang around, but ultimately it’s your call.

Chris

I enjoy reading your posts but I would like to confirm the outlying details to see if they match up documented facts. I find it hard to believe that a judge would let an illegal immigrant accused of murder go free on $30,000 bail.

Without such details a reader has no way of knowing if you’re like that guy at the local VFW bar who has a big yarn about that time he was in the Mekong Delta with a nuclear powered flamethrower fighting the VC.

I can (with a little research to jog my memory; this was a long time ago). However, there’s a reason I stay real vague about times/dates/locations when I write cop stories.

I think I know the answer, but why do you ask?

Chris

Kathy,

I’ve seen your blog posts on FB here and there, but since I’m always busy writing I haven’t been able to take a good look at your blog. I promise I’ll do so now. Thanks for reading and commenting, and for buying my book. Please feel free to post an honest review, even if you think the book sucks. Honest reviews help my future writing career.

Take care and I hope to see you comment more in the future.

Chris

Stay safe.