Pubdate: Sun, 19 Dec 2004
Source: Columbia Daily Tribune (MO)
Copyright: 2004 Columbia Daily Tribune
Contact:  http://www.columbiatribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/91
Note: Prints the street address of LTE writers.
Author: Tony Messenger

BOONE COUNTY PRISONER FALLS THROUGH CRACKS OF INJUSTICE

John Pepper is a prisoner of war.

His crime is that he has a past.

His sentence is 105 days and counting.

That's how long the 58-year-old Pepper has been sitting in the Boone County 
Jail, awaiting extradition to Arizona. There, in Mohave County, he faces 
four-year-old charges of drug possession and manufacture. Pepper used to be 
a meth addict. The Vietnam vet spent most of his adult life under the 
influence of alcohol and drugs. He's been in and out of prison. He used to 
be, to use his own words, a pretty bad guy.

"When I look at my rap sheet," he says, "that guy scares me."

The rap sheet has as many entries as Pepper does tattoos. They're scattered 
up and down both of his arms and peeking through the V-neck of his 
jail-issued orange jumpsuit. He fits the bill of a lifetime criminal, a 
so-called three-time loser. Talk to him, though, even through a pane of 
glass in a jail visitation room, and you hear a man seeking justice.

He figures he did whatever he's charged with in Arizona, though he can't 
remember. He used to black out a lot when he was high on meth. That's how 
he ended up in Columbia. He awoke from a blackout and found himself at 
Truman Memorial Veterans Hospital. Out of desperation, for the first time 
in his life, he agreed to go into drug treatment. The Department of 
Veterans Affairs sent him to a clinic at Lake of the Ozarks, and he's been 
clean since. It's been 17 months, and Pepper is a new man.

So says Reggie Kinser, a local Church of Christ pastor who met Pepper at an 
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting a year and a half ago. Pepper has been active 
at Kinser's church. He's moved into a home for recovering drug addicts. The 
VA hired him to work at Truman. Unfortunately, that's what led to Pepper's 
address changing to the Boone County Jail.

Because of a possible promotion, VA officials had to run a background check 
on Pepper. The old warrants showed up. Boone County sheriff's deputies 
arrested Pepper on Sept. 3 while he was working.

Two days later, he appeared before Boone County Associate Circuit Judge 
Larry Bryson. He said he didn't need an attorney. He knew he wanted to do 
the right thing and accept extradition to Arizona so he could deal with the 
consequences of the charges he faced. "There was no sense in me adding to 
the public defender's caseload," he says. "I knew what extradition was. I 
didn't want to deny anything."

That's one of the things Pepper learned in his treatment program. He's no 
longer ashamed of his past. He knows who he was and who he is. He takes 
responsibility for his actions and treats people with respect.

"I waived all my rights and told him I'm willing to go down there and get 
it cleared up," he says.

Bryson, for some reason, was having none of it. Rather than rule on the 
extradition matter, he set a second hearing for Oct. 5.

Again, Pepper asked to be extradited so he could put his affairs in order.

Again, Bryson delayed.

This is when Kinser, who had been visiting his friend in jail, got 
concerned. The pastor wrote a letter asking for help to Presiding Judge 
Gene Hamilton. Kinser also spoke with local defense attorney Pat Eng, who 
happened to be in court on the days Pepper tried to waive his extradition. 
Eng thought it seemed as if Pepper were spending an awfully long time in 
jail for a guy who was simply trying to be extradited, and he agreed to 
make a couple of calls.

"The very unfortunate part of this situation is that John truly wants to 
resolve the situation in Arizona," Kinser wrote Hamilton. "He is more than 
willing to travel there voluntarily and present himself to the authorities. 
Instead, my friend is losing valuable time."

The letter or Eng's calls or both had the desired effect. On Nov. 30, 
realizing too much time had elapsed, Bryson dismissed the complaint filed 
against Pepper based on the out-of-state warrant. He was free. Minutes 
later, the prosecuting attorney refiled the complaint, and Pepper was 
hauled before Associate Circuit Judge Jodie Asel to again face an 
extradition hearing.

Asel granted Pepper's request. He would be extradited to Arizona, just as 
soon as Mohave County officials came to pick him up.

That was almost three weeks ago. Pepper was told it would be 10 days or less.

Now he's still stuck in jail, and he's more worried than before. He has no 
hearings scheduled. The jail won't release him, but he has no idea whether 
or when Arizona officials will come to pick him up. It's been 105 days, and 
he hasn't spoken with an attorney and still doesn't even know exactly the 
status of the charges against him.

"How is the judge even going to know that I'm still here?" he says. "Nobody 
will tell me anything. If it's really all that serious, why am I still 
sitting here?"

Pepper wonders whether he's the only prisoner in his situation.

"Everybody seems to be on the sheriff because of the jail overcrowding," he 
says. "He's not the problem. The problem is with the courts."

Exhibit A is the case of John Pepper. There he sits, in his new home in the 
Boone County Jail, charged with not a single crime in Missouri, willing to 
answer to any charges thrown his way. He figures he's probably got some 
more jail time in his future. Pepper just thinks a judge ought to tell him 
why he's there.