Grasshopper's Appeal part 4
Worst taxi ride ever, pages 17 -- 21...
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just in case you were not aware. Now back to our regular Appeal. firstoff,
Greetings my dear readers, hoping this installment finds you well and good.
We’re gonna get right into the next segment of Grasshopper’s Appeal, here at
KGRaS, Grasshopper Radio Service, Generally Regarded as Safe. Thank you.
As i started typing, i recalled and found this article, complete with a picture of the lady Janet Vandebos, that verifies the veracity of what i’d suspected. Of course i could only read the first paragraph before the trauma overcame me, to see her, good Lord, and i only leave the link since it is there to see if you wanted.
http://offtrackthoroughbreds.com/2015/02/26/jan-vandebos-i-wasnt-prepared-to-let-her-go/
the woman in the picture is the one who testified falsely against me. yup.
Also, it took some searching , but i finally found a pic of Carol C Yaggy. She is on Page 13 (in the pdf…) of this link, on the top left row. You will want to look at her because, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, ditto the other one above, where there are actually 2 pics of Jan Vandebos. here is the Carol Yaggy
https://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=ggulawyer
She is on page 10, Golden Gate Lawyer * Spring/Summer 2007, (so photos concurrent to the events described)
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[ page 17 ]
The Ride — “What was your worst cab ride ever?”
Staehly asks…
When I was locked up in K-block, cell 1, 850 Bryant, in solitary isolation (“administrative segregation-” I was told it was because I ran for mayor, this torture upon orders from Michael Hennessy, Sheriff) one of the guards asked me about my worst taxi ride ever. At this time I wish to go into more detail about that sad event.
Before she got into my cab, I could clearly tell that the woman was flustered, and therefore I knew that whatever was bothering her, and obviously she was quite upset as she approached, was going to make it hard to deal with her. As a taxi driver, body language on the approach is something you take great awareness of , and hers signaled a recent trauma to me. In town, I would have just kept going, but at the airport there is no practical way to refuse a ride, so I tried to make the best of it. Alas, i was aware to exercise caution with this woman for reasons I did not know, but therefore was extra courteous and careful to be polite and professional.
Taxicab rules and regulations stipulate that fares shall present themselves in a clean , sober, and orderly manner for transport. Since she more or less appeared to be all three at that moment, I was compelled to transport her to her stated destination. I tried to include this citation of SF Taxicab Rules and Regulations into the jury instruction, which Yaggy refused, further violating my due process. Interestingly, Vanbebos herself tried to walk away from my Grasshopper Taxicab, but the starter told her to take me. She sat in the middle of the bench behind me (there is no rear seat in the van, as that space is reserved for a wheelchair) and I put her half-filled small suitcase on the floor next to her. This was her only piece of luggage. Then i closed the sliding door for her.
We discussed her destination. She stated, “2636 Green,” and I said, “Oh, the Marina.” Then I asked would it be cash (as opposed to credit , which required a charge of $50- dollars or greater to secure approval for, as i recall) and she said it would be cash. Also we had that discussion about the route ( see Background- the route) so I was forced to take the 101 North into town. The airport is what? 15 miles south of the city. In the middle of the night it takes 20 minutes , but in stop and go traffic, it took nearly 45 minutes to get from SFO to the gas station at Mission and South Van Ness. By that time, around 6:30 pm, she had been screaming, in fact shrieking like a banshee, uninterruptedly, while I had managed nevertheless to safely transport her on the 101 North parking lot that day. I felt like I had proved to be a pro,
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having maintained my calm and through all of her screaming and shrieking to deal with the priority of driving. I soon would be getting her out of my taxicab which she no longer was presenting herself in an orderly manner to be transportated in , according to taxi law. To clarify, she removed herself from my van unassisted, entirely under her own power, and without help from me.
Janet [Jan] Vandebos is a horse trainer and breeder. I found out later that she was coming from Santa Barbara, I guess, and I’d always wondered if she’d had a drink on the plane, or other drugs affecting her behavior. The Judge, Carol Yaggy, refused to allow me to pursue this line of questioning in my own defense, when I was acting as my own counsel. Nor did Zadik, of course. I doubt that this made the record , how most of my defense was disallowed. In fact, by virtue of having a lawyer interjected to defend me halfway through the trial, I lost any opportunity to give an opening statement, as Yaggy disallowed my own effort. Also from Zadik, there never was any opening statement. Instead, they just picked up and continued the trial midstream after a 5 minute recess. It would have been more just and fair to call a mistrial, which there were already many reasons for, and start over.
I found out later that Vandebos was upset, I gather, about an incident, a horrible accident, that had left one of her horses , Lady Nydia, in pretty bad shape. I can understand being emotionally upset about an injured animal you adore, I ‘m sure I too would be. After i got out of jail I found an article online, maybe in Equestrian? Vandebos wrote about that tragedy, I think it was the November ‘07 issue, I believe , as I recall.
[ I searched around online just now and couldn’t relocate that article, sadly, but the one cited at the beginning of this post gives you the idea. I had read the one i just mentioned in the original writing online around 2010, and it was written by Janet Vandebos herself, as i recall. Gh]
She was upset about her horse, and later made false claims that I now wish to debunk. I never, as she claimed, called her a , “rich bitch,” and this phrase falsely attributed to me is both vulgar and offensive, as well as outside of my vernacular, Thank you very much. I never threatened her in any manner, and in fact, treated her courteously and drove her safely. I never made any statements about suicide in the course of that ride. There was very little actual conversation between us, for I was busy trying to drive. I did call my friend, which was legal, whom I saw pulling in to drop as I departed SFO, and advised him to avoid the 101 North for his return. He wanted to testify about the fact that he could hear her shrieking in the background, which the judge did not allow. He also would have been a good witness about traffic conditions. Did the judge allow this? She sure didn’t give much, but she had no problem constantly belittling me in front of the jury. It seemed like every other word I said, when I was acting as my own counsel, she disallowed. She was constantly saying, “Mr. Kaplan,” kind of like those famous, flustered scenes
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from Welcome Back Carter? Is it? (Or, Cotter?) That TV show where the kids, “Horseshack” can’t keep from calling out to the teacher, “ Oo Ooo Ooo, Mr. Carter…” that was how Yaggy herself was acting, like a brash juvenile.
The ride itself was a nightmare that has left me feeling bad ever since. Let me tell you about Janet Vandebos , during that ride. She was just screaming, beyond screaming, she was just shrieking, she was totally out of control. She was talking to her partner Robert Naify on the phone. She said in court later that her cell phone battery had died and that this caused her to panic. But, she stated, she continued to pretend to be talking on the phone.
[All of that was a lie, obviously her cell phone was working just fine…]
She was shrieking, and it was stop and go traffic. I really had to focus on the road. I did ask her if she was a supporter of Gavin Newsom. In court, she said I had asked if she was “friends” with him, but the word I had used during that ride was , “supporter.” After she said she was, I decided it was a bad idea to try and convince her to vote for me, so I didn’t pursue that line of conversation. I believe the transcript only introduces further error herein, sadly.
There was an issue in the trial about the actual date of the ride, which was Thursday July 26th, 2007. They , however, did not come to trial knowing the exact date nor day of the week. I tried to get the case dismissed because of this inandofitself, that the allegation was too vague because they argued it could have been any one of three possible days and it didn’t matter at all which one, so much. I tried to enter my request to dismiss on these matters into the record… did any of this make it? I doubt it. A calendar was introduced as an exhibit because of these shenanigans, when it should instead have been an immediate dismissal.
In court, Karen Hallett stated that I had actually tried to kill her client in front of the jury, which is not on the record. Zadik objected, so the judge made her retract this, but you can’t erase sound from peoples’ ears or minds. They even went so far as to state that I had actually had an accident; Janet Vandebos stated that she thought that I had actually hit the center divider. They tried to say that I was going 80 miles and hour , which was just not possible then. At even 50 mph, it would have been a short ride; but it took well over half an hour for all the traffic, which they denied the existence of.
Although we didn’t actually speak much, I did try to engage her briefly, which was probably what she considered criminal, that my Freedom of Speech
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might apply to my self as well as to her. I recall that I mentioned that I was homeless, which I frequently told my fares, not only because it was true, but because it was part and parcel of my bid to be mayor, that I felt one ought not have to be homeless in a city such as San Francisco. I’ve even written a song about this , entitled Knee Pads. The first line goes, “ Why when we live in a city so rich , are there so many homeless? With nary a stitch?” and there’s another line late about, “ my heart is broken, but nary spoken…”
Anyway, when I told her I was homeless (in fact , living out of the van at that time, although I didn’t tell her that) she said, “Well, I give a dollar or two to the homeless,” and I responded, “Well, yeah, but I’m still homeless.” I didn’t mean this as an attack. Certainly it was not a threat, nor can it be taken as one. I told many fares around that time as much as a I could of my sad story so that I could hopefully encourage people to vote for me. In fact, it was because I had become homeless that I was running for mayor, at great expense to myself, in the hopes of being able to somehow raise awareness, and create change on/about this issue of all the empty vacant commercial space that could be housing in this city, while people are starving and sleeping in the street. This attempt to raise any such awareness was a total failure on my part, I’m sad to report.
I said earlier that people are animal creatures, which is true, but at this time I wish also to regurgitate the possibility that people are plants and actually prefer to stay rooted, rather than constantly moving. But we’ve created this unadmirable situation where it’s now often cheaper to live out of a vehicle and buy gas, rather than try to buy a house, or even rent anything. Our planet is in a deeply perilous situation at this time, and we ‘re really gonna have to focus and bring it back to providing basic human needs: food, water, shelter, clothing, education, transportation, infrastructure. I guess I was crazy for thinking I had any power to effect a change in the system that I did not feel was serving my basic needs, by working within the parameters of that system. In fact, that was my crime, apparently, running for mayor, for which I was severely punished; thank you for that.
By the time we were getting close to town, it was clear that she was no longer presenting herself within reasonable orderliness for transport, so per taxicab rules and regulations, the ride would have to end. But I was also getting a really bad feeling from her now, that she would make an effort to get
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me into trouble for some imagined crime she might have thought I had committed. She was still shrieking. Had she calmed down some, I would have been happy to take her to her home, but she seemed intent upon being disturbed and screaming.
I tried to “ confirm from her” her destination, is what I actually stated in the court, during the trial. Joanne Farrell erroneously had the record with me stating, which I did not say, that I had “confronted her” and this is quite a different meaning and different words than those I spoke. { I feel , I ought to be entitled to review the complete, certified transcript for accuracy , as I was acting as my own defense counsel. I’m not sure that Kathleen* exactly agrees.} I was just trying to get something intelligible out of her, to no avail. I had heard her mentioning that she wanted Bob Naify to pick her up at the Mission and South gas station. I tried to confirm from her that I could drop her off there. She only kept shrieking like someone was stabbing her , but I never touched that woman at all.
In fact, that whole trial was skewed to put words into my mouth that I never stated, words I had not spoken. What I did say was altered, apparently, as I noted above. Rather than highlighting my professional conduct under difficult circumstances, the intent and context of my utterances were distorted rather dishonestly so as to make me a criminal. Thank you for that. But I committed no crime , I wish to state at this time.
I tried to drop her off at Mission and Plum alley, the first safe place after pulling off the freeway, but she refused to get out. I gathered that she wanted me to take her to the gas station, so I drove the last block. Then I opened the door curbside and asked her to get out. I set her half suitcase on the ground, which likely fell over because there was so little stuff in it. I set it upright again, being calm. Then she was struggling to get her seat belt off, and after she finally did, I pointed to the curbside for her safety, and said, “Get out of my cab.” She eventually got out. Since I didn’t believe that she was going to pay me, I was not wanting to hang around and hear her hysterical screaming for another moment longer once she was out, so I drove away.
Yes, both sliding doors were likely open as I drove off. This was NOT a speedy getaway from a crime scene, as the prosecution impugned. I often drove around the airport parking lot with my doors open for air, which was fine with no passengers inside. The doors slide closed on their own once the brakes are depressed, from momentum. They tried to say in court that i was a criminal because I drove the van with these doors open. That would make it criminal to smile at yourself in the sunroof.
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[ * Kathleen Page “corrected” many errors in the transcript, including many that were not errors until “corrected.” But she refused to file for an Appeal for me, even after several years (8-4-15) . Ace Lipton ended up filing an useless appeal eventually]{handwritten note…}
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But that is what it means to live in a state of terror. Finally , it will become a crime to think the wrong thoughts under a waning moon from the rooftops to the stoops.
After I finally got her out of my cab, despite having wasted all that time, I wanted to get out of the van myself for a break, before picking up anyone else, to avoid passing any of her bad energy along. Of course, Janet Vandebos turned out to be the last taxicab ride, as such, I legally transported. How sad.
[ Except for a brief reprise 3-3 til 5-1 of 2022 ended by Peter Woods SFMTA ]
/// … to be continued … \\\
Wow! What an absolute nightmare!!
What a cheek that Vanderloo's got to market herself as a saint.