Passion Isara Julinsey
I have been extremely reluctant to write you this letter. I have been postponing doing this for some time. I believe that your sister is in trouble and needs help, and who else is there to write to but you? I recognize that your sister does not seem to want help from anybody and wants to do it on her own, and that there is a limit to what you might be able to do.
I need to explain the events of January 16-18, 1998.
I work in a law office and I also have a taxi driver's license. Your sister felt that my driving a taxi was dangerous for me and demeaning and embarrassing for her, and asked me to stop driving. As a result, the last time I drove a taxi was on the night of November 11, when I drove to the bus station to pick your sister up when she arrived in New York from Dallas to bring her to my home.
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Passion Isara Julinsey |
I called home at about 5:00 PM on the night of Friday, January 16, and left a message on your sister's machine that I would not be home until 6:00 AM the next morning. A taxi driver normally drives a 12 hour shift from either 5:00 PM to 5:00 AM or from 5:00 AM to 5:00 PM. I had finally gotten the taxi fleet owner to agree to let me drive on Friday night. He had wanted me to drive on a Monday night, when there is little business and I might not have been able to make any profit at all.
Your sister knew about the problem I was having regarding the fine and the taxi ticket. She knew that I would have to be driving a taxi one night that week and that I would not be coming home until morning. She did not voice any objection.
Fortunately, I made $210 that Friday night, so I got my $205 back with five dollars to spare.
I arrived home at 6:00 AM as expected. To my surprise, I could not get in the front door. I went to a pay phone on the corner and called home from there. Your sister did not answer. She had the message machine on, instead. It was apparent that she was not at home.
You must understand that I was desperately tired. I had worked all day in the law office, and then had driven the taxi all night and finally had taken the subway home. I had not slept in 24 hours. Yet, I found that I was locked out of my own house.
For the next 12 hours, I repeatedly called and left messages on your sister's answering machine at home and on her voicemail at work. I knew that she often called in to check her messages. Since I knew the code, I was able to determine that she was not calling in.
Another unfortunate circumstance was that the owners of the building where we were living are Orthodox Jewish. They do not work and do not even answer the telephone on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath Day. Therefore, I could not contact them to obtain a duplicate key to the house.
This house at 1813 New York Avenue is for sale. There are several real estate firms in the neighborhood with a key to the house, so that they can show the house to their clients. I walked around and asked, but they all claimed that they could not find the key, or that the key was out. In reality, they probably were reluctant to give me the key.
While I was walking around searching for a duplicate key or for some other way to get into the house, I leaned a brick onto the front door and stuck a newspaper in the crack. The reason for this was that if your sister came home while I was walking around, I would see that the brick had been moved and that the newspaper had fallen down and that your sister had entered the house.
Nevertheless, after 12 hours of waiting, your sister had not come home, nor had she called to check her messages.
During this 12 hour period when I was waiting and trying to get into my own house so I could finally get some sleep, all kinds of thoughts went through my head as to what might have happened to your sister. She might be dead or in the hospital, she might have moved out, she might be mad at me for some reason. Although we have had a rocky relationship, we had been on extremely friendly terms the pervious day and there was no immediate sign of any problem.
One possibility which passed through my mind was that she had maliciously stolen my key and moved out.
Finally, at about 5:30 PM, I spoke to the neighbor, Ken, about this. He pointed out that there is a skylight in the roof of my house, which is next to his house. He agreed to ask one of his adopted sons to climb onto the roof of his house, climb over to the roof of my house, come down the skylight and open the front door.
This was done and within five minutes the front door to my house was open.
I invited Ken inside and took him upstairs to show him my computer. After about ten minutes, Ken left. During this time, your mother called. When she asked about your sister, I had to tell her the truth. I told her that your sister had not come home in 36 hours but that her suitcases and clothing were all still here, so she had not moved out. Your mother said that your sister never does things like that and asked me to call the police.
A few minutes later, you called, and I told you the same thing.
A few minutes after Ken left, I heard a noise downstairs. I went down and, to my astonishment, I found your sister in the living room. She acted surprised that I was surprised to see her there. She said that she had been all day in the basement studying law books for her bar exam and that she had not come upstairs because she did not want to bother me or to wake me up.
I accepted this as true. At about that time, I received calls from several friends who I had told about this problem about me being locked out of my own house. I told them all that is was just a mistake and that she had been in the house all along.
After a while, however, I realized that her story was not true, because of the fact that I had put a brick in front of the door at 6:00 AM and the brick had not been moved. Also, the CALLER ID showed that she had called me at 5:11 AM from Goldman, Sachs, which is one hour away. Therefore, I knew that she could not possibly have been home by 6:00 AM.
When I confronted her with this, she changed her story. In fact, her story kept changing again and again. Finally, I realized the improbable truth. Actually, she had come home after I did. She had snuck into the house while Ken was upstairs looking at my computer, and had snuck down into the basement to create this story that she had been there all day long studying law books.
Obviously, she did not know that I had put a brick on front of the door which would enable me to determine that nobody had entered the house. She also might not have realized that I would be locked out of my own house all day long. Her story was that since I had been sleeping all day long because of having worked all night, therefore she did not want to disturb me. Her story probably would have passed and I might not have thought further about it, were it not for the fact that in reality I had been locked out of the house all day long.
When she realized that I knew that she was lying, she became militant and hostile. She finally admitted that she had come into the house while Ken was upstairs. She said that she had hidden in the basement until he left because she did not want him to know the true nature of our relationship.
As to her whereabouts for the preceding 36 hours, she said that she had called in that night and heard my message that I would not be home until 6:00 AM. She said that because she did not want to be alone in my house, therefore she had gone to the Goldman, Sachs library to study all night. She had left there at about 7:00 AM. Then, instead of coming home, she had walked around Manhattan all day long sight seeing.
This story was, of course, absurd. If she were really serious about studying for the bar exam, why would she go for 36 hours without sleep while walking around Manhattan? I told her that the only reasonable explanation was that she had spent either the night or the day or both with a man. She denied this, but said that she wished that she had done so.
I am an exceptionally even tempered person. I wanted her to cool down. Therefore, I said that we should just go to sleep, which we did. She claimed that she, like I, had not slept in 36 hours.
What I found distressing was that I had told her that her mother was extremely upset and worried about the disappearance of her daughter. Your sister did not seem to care about your mother. She was also mad at me for telling your mother that she had gone missing. She said that I had should have lied to her mother, as Vera had done when she had gone somewhere without telling your mother.
Your mother called again at about 7:30 PM. Your sister answered the telephone. She said that your mother was hysterical, but your sister did not seem to care.
You must understand that even if she was out somewhere with a man, that would not concern me. Guys were calling her asking for dates all the time. On one weekend alone, seven different guys called to ask her out. Sometimes, she went out with them. I had no objection to this. I feel that this is her right as a young woman and is only to be expected.
On the other hand, I naturally found it disturbing that she would tell a series of lies on a matter which had caused me so much agony and suffering. I asked her why she did not simply call and leave a message on the answering machine that she was not coming home that night. I know the code *3 on her machine to receiving incoming messages and we normally exchanged messages that way when neither of us were home. At one point, she said that she had called home and tried to leave a message but that the machine had not worked right. I said that I had called and left four subsequent massages and the machine had worked perfectly. Also, I could see from the CALLER ID that she had last called home at 5:11 AM, and she knew that I would not be coming home until 6:00 AM. Therefore, it was obvious that she had called at 5:11 AM to check on me and to verify that I was not at home, and not to speak to me.
She said that she had not called home after that because she did not want to waste 6 cents, which is the price she calculates that Bell Atlantic charges for a local call. (She would have been calling me from her office.)
During this entire time, she continuously shifted from being bombastic, loud, bellowing and demanding to being sniveling, whimpering and self-pitying. She often said that she is studying for the bar exam "which is very important to me" and that she is under a lot of stress and tension because of this, but then, before I could express any sympathy for her plight, she would shift back to her hostile and antagonistic mode.
Anyway, we both went to sleep. I was hoping that, after a good night sleep, she would be back to normal in the morning.
When I awoke the next morning, I put my arm around her as usual. She did not object. I think there was a telephone call which she answered and then came back into bed.
After she was back in bed laying next to me, with my arm around her, she said something extremely hostile and nasty. I do not remember what it was she said. I wish I did.. I think she was trying to provoke perhaps even a violent reaction. In fact, this entire situation seems in retrospect to have been an effort on her part to provoke me in some way.
Anyway, I did not hit her, hurt her or harm her in any way. I feel that about 95% of all men would have reacted in some way considering what she had just put me through.
A few minutes later, she told me that I smelled bad, which was not surprising since I had been out on the street for 36 hours before finally getting a night's sleep, and that I should take a bath. I followed her advice and got in the bath tub.
While I was in the bath, she called the police. Two police officers, Officer Tracy Badge # 7796, and Officer Goldman, Badge # 5555, arrived just as I was getting out of the tub.
The first story your sister told the police was that she was working in the house as a cleaner in exchange for rent and that I was harassing her and trying to force her to move out and she had nowhere to go.
You must understand that under the New York City Rent Regulations, this is a dangerous allegation. Once a person has lived in a house for 30 days, they become a tenant and cannot be evicted without a court order which takes months to get. Since this house is for sale with the understanding that I have to move out as soon as the house is sold, your sister could really cause a lot of trouble for the real estate company and for me by claiming herself to be a legal tenant.
When the police asked me about this, I told them that she did not work for the real estate company, but that I did. I further told them that she had no relationship with that company, had never met them and that she was in the house only as my guest.
After that, your sister changed her story several times. Finally, her allegation was that I had touched her which, she said, was battery. The police replied that battery is not an arrestable offense in New York (which it is not, as I subsequently found when I looked it up in the law books).
When asked about this, I said that of course I had touched her, because there is only one sleeping area in the house and we were both sleeping in the same bed together. Naturally, when two people sleep in the same bed together, they touch each other.
Your sister told the police that the reason we sleep in the same bed together is that we have only one electric blanket and it is too cold at night to sleep in separate beds.
Finally, one of the police officers took me aside for a private conversation. He said that fortunately for me she had not accused me of doing anything which constituted grounds for arrest. In addition, they could see that she was lying because she had already changed her story three times. He also said that a lot of police discretion has been taken away from them, and that if she makes certain allegations, they would be required to arrest me even if they knew her allegations to be untrue. He therefore told me that this woman is very dangerous and, as she has already lived in this house for more than 30 days, there is no legal way I could get her out, but he advised me to try to get her to move out as quickly as possible.
After this conversation, the two police officers left. As they were getting ready to leave, your sister told them that she wanted them to make a police report. They said that they could not make a police report because she had not alleged anything which constituted a crime and, without such an allegation, they had nothing to report. Finally, at her insistence, they made a report that I had harassed her, after telling her that they could not arrest me for that.
After the police officers left, I asked your sister to give me the keys to the house so I could make a duplicate. She protested, saying that she was going to move out and would give me the keys when she left. Finally, she did give me the keys. I went outside and made a duplicate. As she was late to work, I met her on the street on her way to the subway and gave her the keys back. This was at 11:30 AM and she was late, because she was supposed to be at work by 12:00.
I came home that night at 10:00 PM. I found a Lemo of the type which her company provides her whenever she goes home after 8:00 PM parked outside with a Pakistani driver waiting. I went inside and found her packing to leave. I went to work on my computer and told her that I would still like for her to stay, but I made no real effort to convince her not to go.
A few days later, I received several telephone calls from her employer, who thought that she was still living in my home. I found out that she had been fired from her job only a few days after moving out of my house. Your sister and I exchanged sympathetic e-mails over the next few days. I thought that she might be coming back to live with me again. I even got a haircut and cleaned up the house in anticipation of her return.
However, soon her e-mails took a nasty turn. She seemed to be blaming me not only for losing her job but for all of the terrible things which she says have happened to her in recent times.
The job from which she was fired had actually been arranged by a chess-playing friend of mine, who works at an employment agency. I called my friend and asked him why she had been fired. He said he would check on it. The next day, he told me that she had been fired because Goldman, Sachs had caught her in a lie and that absolutely she would not be able to work there again.
The lie which they caught her in was something for which she knew she would be fired if they found out about it. She had often mentioned this to me and told me not to tell Goldman, Sachs. She may believe that I blew the whistle and called Goldman, Sachs, but I did not do so. Goldman, Sachs thoroughly investigates all employees and there are many ways that they could have found out about it.
On February 13, nearly one month after she moved out, I received a call from a Detective Wright at the local police precinct. He said that he had just that day received a complaint about me from your sister. He asked me to come down to the police station to talk about it but, as he was going away on vacation, he would set it up for next week when he came back.
He said that he understood that there was some ill feelings between me and your sister and that he wanted us both to come down and he would sit down with the two of us, talk it over and try to resolve this matter. Naturally, I was extremely happy to do this and readily agreed.
On February 19, Detective Wright called me again. He said he was back and he wanted for me and your sister to come down to the police station and meet with him at 2:30 PM. I readily agreed. In spite of the advice that both the law firm where I work and several of my friends gave me not to go, I went anyway. I showed up at 2:30 PM. Your sister arrived at 3:00 PM. (I now believe that Detective Wright had told me to come a half hour early, in case I might be late.
However, I never got this mediation and conference with your sister which I had been promised. Instead I was arrested on a charge which was absolutely false. Detective Wright told me that he did not believe your sister's charge either, especially since Officer Tracy and Officer Goldman had been my house on the occasion in question and had not arrested me. Nevertheless, he had no choice, Detective Wright said, because your sister was going down to the DA's office and was talking "a mile a minute" about this case.
The truth of the matter is that I have been the one true friend which your sister has had. I have done everything I could possibly think of to help her. As you may be aware, she met me because she was looking for a job, which I helped her to get. I did this and a long list of other things without any thought of personal benefit for me. She was making gross $1400 (one thousand four hundred dollars) per week in her two jobs (before taxes of course), yet she lived rent free in my house because I paid all of her expenses. She had no other friends in New York but me. She seems to have rejected the friends she left behind in Texas.
I even waited to write you this letter until after she took her bar exam, which she took on February 24-25, so as not to disturb her while she was studying for the bar, even though she had had me arrested on February 19.
I really do not know what you or anybody can or should do about this. Your sister has rejected everything around her. Not only has she rejected me, her only true friend, but she has rejected her family, her culture, her name, her nationality and everything about her past.
I have always liked and respected the fact that she is aggressive, especially for a woman, and wants to prove that she can succeed and do it on her own. I still believe that potentially she has a great future ahead of her. However, her potential will never be realized if she continues on her present self destructive course.
If she had left my home and moved to a better environment, I would completely understand. However, while I have not tried to locate her, I understand from what the police officer told me that, after moving out of my house, she went to live in a cheap, sleazy hotel on 44th Street in the Times Square Area, which is known to be frequented by drug addicts and prostitutes.
I know that you are concerned about your sister. I believe that you agree that she needs help. I hope you will be able to think of some way to help her.
Sincerely,
Sam Sloan