Dominic Hughes - News Archives

Unhappy, Lawyer-less Jail Bird Squawks for Better Jail Conditions
 

January 24, 2005

Maybe it was the deluge of nauseating defense strategies. Maybe it was the horrifying Phyllis Summers pretending to be a reporter for a Georgia newspaper. Maybe it was the staggering notion that while he could be going to prison for a very long time Damon Porter had little interest in the murder charge against him.

Or maybe it was all these things that made everyone forget until just recently that alleged victim Dominic Hughes was rotting in a Genoa City jail cell awaiting extradition to Georgia on a parole violation without any appeal rights, without any contact with his parole officer or a lawyer to represent him.

Whatever the reason it doesn't matter much now that Hughes has been allowed to see the District Attorney. Yes, dear readers. Only in Genoa City can a small fry like Hughes complain about his present living conditions, ask the jailer to escort him to the DA's office and actually be taken there to say, "I'm unhappy in the lockup."

Only in Genoa City could Hughes demand he be returned to Georgia, ask how freaking long it's gonna take and not once ask to see a parole officer or request a public defender. And only in this godforsaken lawless city would the DA tell Hughes that the lawyer for one of those accused of attempting to kill him wants to ask him questions without an opposing lawyer present.

Only during the course of what may be the worst case scenario of bleak anxiety would DA Glenn Richards say that by speaking with Michael Baldwin can Hughes effectively get what he wants. Only in a mass of confusion would Richards inadvertently refer to Baldwin as co-conspirator Damon Porter's attorney and then have Hughes request an attorney only to be told he doesn't need one. Only when the Ashconian Richards threatened Hughes with having to stay in Wisconsin unless he cooperates would Hughes waive all his rights.

It's a decidedly fatalistic feeling. Nothing can be done about the persistent violation of civil rights, the constant stomping on the Constitution or the reality that justice here does not exist. Sure, there are those who want nothing more than for this case against Summers and Porter tossed because it was bogus from the git-go. But Jesus, why can't it be squashed without all the abominations?

Why must it have been police detective Hank Weber who acted on his gut feeling that Sandra King isn't really a reporter? Why couldn't Hughes have been properly questioned long ago before Weber busted Summers when she foolishly went to the Abbott Hotel to see her former husband dressed as King? Was it so Weber would not go down in history as one of the most inept detectives since Paul Williams? So that maybe his dismal 0-3 unsolved crimes record wouldn't follow him to the grave?

We should be grateful this case is nearly at an end. Screw the sneering DA and the creepy Christine 'Bug' Blair who nearly admitted she's never been involved in such a legal "farce" as this one turned out to be, the only question remaining is whether Summers will be charged with hindering her own prosecution. Place your bets against it now. When has Summers or any of the "good guys" who commit crimes in the name of solving crime ever been charged?

Which is to say, it's all about the legal onslaught. It's about wrapping up a case that never should have been the easiest way possible. How convenient that Hughes confesses all because he wants to escape the jail conditions and thus Summers and Porter are absolved? Never mind that the Genoa City Jail has some of the cleanest cells this side of Mayberry.

Least you forget, remember this. This dumbed-down numbed-out force-fed sanctimony was never about Summers or Porter or Hughes, the DA or the bumpkin lawyers and detectives.

It was about you.

It was about whether you'd step right up to the ticket booth, shell out some valuable time for a ringside seat and watch the caged animals perform acts God never meant for them to, or whether you'd go to the open window, stick your head out and scream, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"