X-Message-Number: 20176 Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:52:30 -0700 (PDT) From: Driven FromThePack <> Subject: Judge Patricia Thomas Here is a picture of the judge who will be holding the Ted Williams hearing Oct 3: http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:iQhSVgsQFVkC:asia.news.yahoo.com/020730/ap/cho102073015.html+%22patricia+thomas%22+inverness&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 She seems like a fair minded and pragmatic person. Here is a quote from her regarding people who come up on drug charges: Courthouse workers hope Kristofferson's story is repeated many times when Citrus County opens its own drug court this week. After months of planning, the Citrus County Drug Court will hold its inaugural session when it greets the first dozen or so applicants Wednesday. With the grand opening, Citrus will join more than 500 court systems that have formed drug courts since Miami-Dade County invented it in 1989. Circuit Judge Patricia Thomas proposed the Citrus County Drug Court after she spent one year on the felony bench. Like her predecessors in Miami-Dade, she couldn't believe how many defendants were facing drug charges. If they weren't there for buying or using drugs, they were stealing to pay for their habits. "The courts are recognizing that, when people come into the system for drug offenses, you're not just dealing with one person and their situation. It affects families," Thomas said. "If we can assist them in getting things in order, maybe they won't come back here." __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20176