Friday, Feb. 17, 2012
'I didn't want to die from my addiction'
Allen Edmonds/Democrat Missourian
Cass County Presiding Circuit Judge Jacqueline Cook presents a drug court graduation plaque to Cory Kinney Feb. 15 at the Cass County Justice Center.
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By Allen Edmonds, The Democrat Missourian
While walking home from an addiction support group meeting one night, Cory Kinney saw something lying on the ground. He kept walking.
“But he told me the next day that something made him turn around and pick it up,” said Shannon Bruegge, Kinney’s probation officer.
Bruegge led off the list of Drug Court team members to speak at Kinney’s graduation ceremony on a rainy Feb. 15, a dreary evening everywhere but inside the Cass County Justice Center.
“It was a rock of some sort, and on the bottom was written, ‘If you want to soar with the eagles, you can’t do it as an owl.’”
In 16 months, Kinney went from a man who realized he faced a near-certain fate of death hanging with the owls of Cass County to an eagle with a family, a job, the support of a community and an entirely new lease on life, he said.
“Cory told me he didn’t want to die from his addiction. He is the real deal. He’s the kind of man that makes you better just being around him.”
Kinney fit the pattern for a Drug Court candidate, his defense lawyer, Scott Friedrich told the packed courtroom.
Charged with distribution of narcotics, a Class B felony, and facing a five to 15 year prison sentence, “he sat in my office and said, ‘you know, Scott, my life is screwed up. I’m going to end up dead.’ And there were some tears,” Friedrich said.
Kinney had no money, but Friedrich said he knew the story behind his client’s tragic fall. It was a story that included the loss of both parents to illness caused by addiction. It seemed, he said, “the guy had never gotten a break.”
For people like Kinney, with no violent crime convictions but a desire to overcome, Drug Court offers an alternative to prison. For an average of 16 months, candidates undergo addiction treatment, life skills training and intensive supervision en route to a day of celebration – a day when, fully employed and with family and friends at their side, they watch as their charges are dismissed and sealed.
For Presiding Circuit Judge Jacqueline Cook, who spearheaded the program in Cass County several years ago, each graduation is a special day.
“It’s a day to celebrate successes rather than what we on the bench have to do so often, and that’s address failure.”
And for Associate Circuit Judge Mike Rumley, who will assume leadership of the program when Cook steps down from the bench at the end of 2012, Kinney deserves to “stand tall, be proud and live a good life.”
He said Kinney and all Drug Court graduates have “an absolute right to stand tall in this community – what you’ve overcome is something that you’ve been able to accomplish against overwhelming odds.”
Rumley listed the partners in the Drug Court program – the court system, the sheriff’s office, Probation and Parole, the Prosecuting Attorney’s office, defense attorneys, treatment specialists and private employers – all of whom play a role and work together, when many times it is their role to oppose each other in the court system.
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Aaron Perry concurred.
“We normally don’t get to excited about dismissing a case,” he mused.
But in this situation, it was an honor, he said.
“The first thing that struck me about you was your faith,” Perry said. “And we got to see the progression as you develop.”Perry said he will remember one particular story from Kinney – one that made clear the value of programs such as this.
“(Kinney) mentioned that he had gone to sleep one night and he had the feeling something was just not right in his baby’s bedroom. He went to check, and the fan that had been blowing in the bedroom had caught fire, and he was able to quickly put it out. He knew that had he not been sober, it wouldn’t have ended that way.”
Kinney concluded the ceremony by thanking everyone who had played a part in his recovery, including his employers at Young’s Tire & Wheel in Harrisonville. He had been let go previously because of dependability issues related to his addiction, he said late last year in a Democrat Missourian profile.
But Herschel and William Young saw the progress he was making, Kinney said, and took a chance on him.
With the daily friendship and support of his direct supervisor, Morgan Sanders, the establishment played a major role in his recovery, he said.
Young’s Tire & Wheel closed early on Feb. 15 for the graduation ceremony, and both Young brothers along with Sanders stood with and hugged Kinney as he accepted his accolades.
