The Story of Julie
I met Julie on the 4th of July a little over 7 years ago. I did not realize she is an addict. She is pretty, a converser, intelligent and now 52 years old. I gave her my business card that day and the next evening she called and asked if she could come to my home and visit. I picked her up at an apartment complex nearby.
We chatted for a short while and she got out her crack pipe and asked if it was ok to smoke. It was the first time I ever saw crack. As she smoked she began telling me about her personal life. She was living with a married couple, both heroin addicts. She told me she was a crack addict and a prostitute. She smoked her supply in about a 2 hour period and asked if I would take her home. She never asked me for money or solicited me.
For the next 3 years Julie would call and ask to come over or just show up at my door. Over time she told me over and over again that she wanted me in her life but couldn't allow it until she became clean. When she visited she most often came on a bicycle. She would smoke what she had and leave. This progressed into her wanting to leave and asking to come back. So she would leave to whore, buy more drugs and return. Julie smokes between $250 and $300 of crack per day. When Julie is desperate she will have sex with multiple partners for $20 or $30 dollars. If a client has crack, there is no fee. Julie has had relationships with other crack addicts and while her lovers sleep in motel rooms Julie will whore for crack, motel fees and food. Julie has not had a place to live in 13 years and will sometimes sleep in abandoned vehicles.
One evening she showed up and said she needed a place to stay overnight. She went out several times to do her business. The next morning I went in to wake her and she was panicked. The first words out of her mouth were, "Take me to the drug house". I thought I saw the real seriousness of the addiction but that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Over the past three years Julie has told me her story. Julie was an addict in Denver and a prostitute. She got busted for both and spent 3 months in jail. She was released on probation and skipped to Las Vegas where she continued over a 3 year period. She came to Phoenix about 6 years ago and has continued in her ways. Her mother and father are divorced and for years she bilked them separately for large sums of money with ever new excuses. She did the same with her sister. All of them finally caught on. Her mother will not talk to her today. Her mother considers her dead. Her father wishes he would receive a phone call of her death so the worry of her would be over. Julie has an 18 year old son who she abandoned about 10 years ago. She has not seen him in years. Julie has been arrested for driving without a license, car theft, joy riding, DUI, prostitution, check fraud, probation violation and and drug possession. She had 8 warrants out for her arrest for failing to appear on all of the charges and one for skipping probation in Colorado.
Julie is a car thief. When she is out whoring she will ask a customer if he would like to party, meaning smoke crack. She will take the person to another crack users home and ask for money and his car keys to get the crack. Once Julie is in the car, she is gone. She has stolen 19 cars.
About 4 months ago after staying all night she wanted me to drop her off where she does her whoring. I remember leaving her and thinking this is the last time I want to see this poor soul. The following day I received a collect call from her at the Maricopa County Jail. Julie had been a passenger in a car with expired plates and was arrested for the outstanding warrants.
For the next 3 months I visited her once or twice weekly in jail. Her whole personality changed and she became very lucid. She became interested in nurturing her relationship with God and vowed to never do drugs again. Toward the end of her internment I offered to put her to work and give her a place to live. She agreed to a backup plan of a live in drug treatment center. She was released on 3 years probation.
I picked her up at jail upon her release and she immediately began talking about the heroin addicts she lived with and others in the drug scene. Her mind had not moved from that place. She lived in my home and during the first week went through the house, cleaning and rearranging. She did a terrific job. On the 8th day she began picking fights with me and simply walked out the door.
Julie had moved back in with the heroin addicts and after about 3 weeks the wife called and said Julie wanted to return to my home. I picked her up and she had lost about 25 pounds and looked horrible. She had motor function problems from the crack which gave her jerky movements and she was also highly paranoid. About an hour after arriving at the house she panicked and had me drive her back the the heroin addicts' apartment to get crack. Several hours later she went out on her own and scored a second time. At that point I made up my mind that in the morning she was leaving or going to a live in chemical dependency program. In the morning I threatened to call the police so she agreed to the program. I took her there, registered her and left. The following morning I called the program to ask if I could drop off her clothes. They told me Julie walked out the door 20 minutes after I registered her.
She called me about a week later and asked if she could come back and I agreed. She promised me over and over she would not use drugs, would attend treatment and would find a job within a week. She stayed clean for two days because she slept constantly. The evening of the second day I went to the grocery store. When I came home she was in the middle of the street without shoes. She jumped into my car and asked me to take her for "one hit". She became hysterical and begged me. I declined. At 45 miles per hours she attempted to jump from the car but I was able to pull her back in by an arm. I stopped the car and she jumped out. She ran across the street, stuck out her thumb and was immediately picked up.
She was gone another week and her probation meeting was coming up. She called me too late in the day to make the meeting deadline. I called the probation officer and he suggested going with me to get her. He wanted to take her to a counseling center to see if we could get her to voluntarily go into a detox facility. She refused the detox but agreed to a counseling session the next evening. I took her home and she slept about 28 hours until shortly before the meeting. She also consumed enormous amounts of food leaving messes everywhere. I came home from work, woke her to get dressed and left for errands. I took her to the 3 hour meeting and came back home. I smelled crack smoke in the house. She had smoked before the meeting while I was doing errands. I said nothing when I picked her up from the meeting. Her first comments after the meeting were that I was too strict with her. She asked why I wouldn't agree to her leaving for a week at a time and returning to my house. She came home and slept the entire following day continuing with her eating. About 6:30PM she woke up and literally ran into the shower, dressed and came into the living room. She tried to create an argument with me so I knew what was about to happen. She asked for $5 to go to the store. I gladly gave it to her because I knew she would be gone. When she left her hands were swollen and bluish yellow. She asked if I thought her skin color was turning yellow. About 4 hours later she called me sounding very intoxicated. I told her I didn't want her here anymore and hung up. I placed all of her belongings outside my front door for her to pick up.
Several weeks have passed and Julie called me from one of her friend's homes. She sounded very ill and told me she could not move. As a side note, this friend was an alcoholic and eventually committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. I called her probation officer and he agreed to meet me at the friend's house. The paramedics arrived shortly after we got there. Julie was in bed, was ashen white and looked like one of those photos of the Nazi concentration camp inmates. She was just pure skin and bones. The paramedics asked that we take her to the emergency room of the hospital. She was very angry with me. She was barely ambulatory. Her probation officer and I helped admit her to the emergency room. It was about 8:00PM and he left to go home. Julie was in a wheelchair and shortly after he left she called one of the heroin addicts to get a crack delivery at the emergency room of the hospital. I saw her on the courtesy phone in the emergency room and wondered who she was calling. The heroin addict called me on my mobile to verify that she was really there. The emergency room physician came out and told me they could not get her committed if she did not admit to being suicidal. The doctor saw the seriousness of the situation but was helpless. She told me admitting her against her will could end up in a lawsuit against the physician and hospital for assault and battery. She had diagnosed Julie with pneumonia. I went home.
About 2:30AM I heard pounding on my windows and doors. It was Julie. I looked outside and she was in a hospital gown and had arrived in a taxi. About five minutes later she left. I found out the next day she had taken the taxi to a crack house from the emergency room and got crack on credit. At 7:00AM she called from another crack addict's house. She had not gone to bed and was up the balance of the night smoking more crack. She told me she had torn the hospital intravenous tubes out of her arm and walked out of the hospital. In compassion I picked her up and brought her home. Because she could not pay for her taxi fare the driver had kept her purse with her pneumonia antibiotic prescription. I went to the cab company and bailed out her purse and got her prescription filled.
She stayed in bed all day and slept for less than one hour. The crack she used the night before was still having effects. She continuously talked about getting more crack. She was totally emaciated and looked close to death. At 11:30PM she asked for the phone and called an addict friend asking who was at his house and what they were doing. She hung up the phone, crawled out of bed, barely got dressed and asked for a ride to his house. She was nearly unable to walk. This crack is some pretty amazing stuff. I dropped her off.
At 4:30AM a friend called. He lives two blocks from where I dropped her off. He said she had just stopped by looking for alcohol and money. He gave her about a third of a bottle of vodka and she drank the whole thing in front of him and left. He also gave her $1.50 in change.
At 7:00AM the next morning she called and asked to come back to my house. I declined. She said she had $30. The crack addict she was staying with called someone during the night to come to his house to have sex with her for the $30. She had once told me he was a good friend as he wouldn't let her whore on the street but would instead call people to come to his house to have sex with her. There's nothing like a good friend. The crack and alcohol had totally masked out the pneumonia symptoms and kept her up day and night for another 72 hours.
About 2 weeks later I was awakened at 2:00AM by Julie yelling and pounding on all the doors and windows. I waited for her to stop but she didn't so I answered the door. She came in and began ranting and raving about nonsense. I bodied her toward the door and asked her to leave. She left without incident and I noticed she was driving a car. About a week later she stopped by again driving the same car. I was curious as her license was revoked in her probation. That evening a friend of hers called and said Julie had borrowed his girlfriend's car and had been gone for a week. A few days later she stopped again with the same car and asked to use the phone. She called other people who had stolen cars and asked them to trade with her. She also was seeking volunteers to return stolen merchandise to department stores. She said because there were no receipts with the merchandise, she needed volunteers with driver's licenses. She then asked me for money and when I refused she started to become violent. I dialed "911" and she was out the door.
Julie continually broke all conditions of her probation. I stayed in touch with her probation officer and he issued a warrant for her arrest. Due to an overburdened legal system it took four months before the warrant was issued. One morning I saw her entering a home near a place where I purchase supplies for my business. I called the police and she was arrested shortly thereafter.
Julie spent 5 months in jail. During that time I visited her only two times. For the first time I became repulsed while talking to her. She started blaming her problems on her father, sister and me. She refuses to take responsibility for her own actions. Also she continuously talked about going into business with others she had met in jail.
Julie was released from jail to a residential rehab program. She called me one day and asked me to bring her cigarettes. When I visited her she continued to ramble on about going into business with former inmates. She continued to complain about me and her family. I can see there isn't much hope for her as she won't take responsibility for herself and wants to be around others who have drug problems. She was released from the treatment program about a week ago and I haven't heard from her. It will be interesting to see how long she lasts in sobriety.
It is now 3 weeks since Julie was released from rehab. She spent 5 months in jail and 6 weeks in rehab immediately following jail. Yesterday morning, September 15th, 2000, I went to pick up supplies for my business at a distributor near where Julie prostitutes. Guess what? She was on the street soliciting! She had a big smile on her face trying to get attention from passing drivers. She spotted me immediately and the smile vanished into shock. I did not slow down, stop or acknowledge her. When I came home from work I noticed a call in my caller id from the used auto lot near where she was prostituting. I called a friend she always tries to borrow money from and he related that she had been by to borrow money some three weeks ago. In other words she went directly from rehab back out to the street life.
Julie is still on probation. Part of the terms of probation are to pay back a debt for a car she stole and to have full-time employment. She will never accomplish either including other requirements. There are warrants for her arrest due to probation violations and she will again be in jail. And the beat goes on. It is now July 2001 and Julie is still on the street, whoring and doing drugs.
No, I will not accept calls or knocks at my door from her. Some things in life just don't change and you have to learn to accept things the way they really are.
Update July 2002. Julie was arrested for check fraud. She also has other warrants for probation violations and DUI. She has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison. She is currently serving her term.
Update March 2004. Julie has been released from prison.
Update September 2004. Julie's sister called me and told me Julie was back hanging around with her friends, the heroin addicts.
