Twenty-Six
BEING SMARTER THAN his father, Dale Riddle accepted the public defender when offered. At the arraignment Friday morning, the young man pleaded not guilty to all charges. In spite of State Attorney Angela Jenkins' argument for no bail, the judge set bail at $500,000.
Not long after the hearing, a Dale Riddle Defense Fund popped up on the Internet, appealing for all “true, God-fearing Americans” to donate to “save an innocent young man from being ground under the jackboots of Big Government and their wealthy benefactors.”
Looking at the site in Helen’s office that afternoon, I say, “Do you own a pair of jackboots?”
“No, just regular thigh-high leather ones,” she says without missing a beat.
“Ah, really?”
“Of course not, Tom,” she says. “I couldn’t get to my thigh holster if
