Legal 6/19/2019 Debt hearing (a kiwi attends one of Chris' debt hearings)

The Kiwi's account:

"Went to Chris' hearing. It wasn't even remotely close to being the Trial of the Century (and, for reasons we'll come to shortly, not as revealing overall as might've been hoped), but did provide some mild insight into the current states of both Chris and Barb.

One thing I should point out: the acoustics in the courtroom weren't great, and were made worse by the fact that there's almost nowhere to sit that isn't directly under an A/C vent. This made it extremely difficult to pick up the quieter parts of conversations, so chalk any vagueness or inaccuracies up to those.

With that out of the way, here's a chronology of the morning's events:

10.45am: arrive at the Courthouse and make my way to the courtroom. There was no sign of the minivan parked nearby, so this gave me a few minutes to get settled in. One thing to note: the Wednesday court schedule at Greene County is split between criminal cases (9am to 11.30am) and civil cases (11.30am to 2pm). Ostensibly, this left me with up to 45 minutes to kill before Chris and Barb got there, so was hoping that someone would liven things up by getting sent to the chair. That didn't happen. However...

11.03am: Chris and Barb arrive. More accurately, I hear Chris sighing, squealing, and whining as he sets off the metal detector at the main door of the Court. Repeatedly. They come into the courtroom and sit down in relative quiet.

11.05am: the Judge asks if anyone is waiting for a criminal case to be heard. Nobody is, so he adjourns the court for 25 minutes to retrieve the civil dockets. Chris starts playing with a fidget spinner.

11.07am: Chris starts making ridiculous noises (raspberries, light shrieks, grunts, etc.). Barb shushes him; Chris replies to her discipline with, "we're taking a break so I can make a little noise if I want!" This was delivered in the tone of voice of a smug-yet-pouting six-year-old.

11.12am: Chris starts making 'whoop-whoop' noises and singing a childish tune that largely consists of him going 'lalalalala' in yet another six-year-old's tone of voice. Strangely enough, the first time I ever encountered him in public (late last February / early March), he was singing something virtually identical as he was walking down the street. The fidget spinner is still going.

11.22am: ten minutes of relative quiet are broken by another of Chris' noisemaking fits. This time, it's a giant hiccup followed by sighs, squeals, and more fidget spinner as he grunts at no-one in particular.

11.23am: Chris tears himself away from the fidget spinner long enough to make a comment to Barb about something to do with "hairy legs". Couldn't make out the first part of it due to the acoustics, but she shushed him again. The six-year-old voice came out again to say, "but they are hairy legs!" followed by something else unintelligible and more fidget spinner.

11.27am: Judge sits down again, starts getting the 11.30 session underway.

11.30am: a few cases are heard for which the defendants are present; all involve creditors or landlords. Every one of them accepts responsibility for their debts.

11.33am: while that's going on, Chris starts babbling very audibly. The Judge glares at Barb; Barb shushes the man-child. Unsettlingly, it was a near-glossolalia level of babble. The fidget spinner has finally been put away, thank God.

11.40am: more loud sighing and fidgeting from Chris, followed by a theatrically loud yawn. Barb, once again, shushes him.

11.50am: Chris and Barb left the court with the Judge's permission to speak with prosecution attorney in private room re: his case; Barb wasn't allowed in and hung around in the foyer waiting for him. Couldn't follow him in for that, so stuck around for about 20 minutes and when they didn't appear went off to get lunch. My guess is that he'll strike a payment deal with the lawyer in lieu of judgement, fail to keep up the payments, and end up back in court.

A few things that should be pointed out:

The prosecuting attorney on Chris' case was representing multiple creditors against multiple defendants. Frankly, this came across as a regular Wednesday for him, and probably makes up a significant amount of his practice. He wasn't there for Chris specifically; he was just hired to get judgements in favor of the creditors against anyone who might owe them money.

Barb's looking worn-out. There's no good way to describe (or emphasize) this adequately, but it's worse than I can ever remember seeing her. Her hair is completely white, the hollow-eyed thousand-yard-stare is now going out even further than that, and her general demeanor is that of someone who has taken all they can and has retreated into a shell that they only emerge from to shout out something vitriolic once in a while. She's getting around OK physically, but functionally reminds me of an edamame pod.

Chris... Honestly, not too much change there, at least physically. Behaviorially, however, he basically seems to be seriously sliding down the slope into trying hard to revert to childhood. At present, this is likely his strongest defense mechanism against Barb's decline, real-world responsibilities (like creditor judgements), and his lack of social skills bearing down on him. Granted, this is an assessment being made from a completely non-professional standpoint and based on 30 minutes or so of observation - but it's also not the first time I've seen something like this, and he's exhibiting the signs.

Anyhow, he did manage to not park in the Judge's space this time, so he's got that going for him. Which is nice. Oh, and there was no sign of either Snoopy or Clover in the minivan, so presumably they were at the house covering things in shit and destroying furniture.

And that "I sleep with dogs" sticker is probably more accurate than anyone likely to read it may suspect."

 

Chris is weird.

 

Judging by how Chris behaved, I'm surprised the state hasn't sent him for a mandatory mental health evaluation and/or forced him to have some treatment

 

I think it's kind of funny that the poster thought the court cases were boring. Yeah, court is more or less like a business meeting.

As far as Chris's behavior, yeah, he's still a man-child. It's not too surprising that Barb had to supervise him in public and that he's making weird noises. Yes, autistic kids often make weird noises and fidget in public.

Unless he commits a crime, there's really nothing the government can do. Being an autistic weirdo in public isn't a crime, and there are plenty of homeless mentally ill people far worse than Chris out there who are left alone by the government. Maybe a manager could ask him to leave if he's too disruptive, and considering he gets banned from a lot of public places, that probably happens a lot. If he tard rages and refuses to leave, they could call security or the cops, and yeah, then he might spend the night in a holding cell.

Chris was charged with trespassing a few years ago and is currently in a court diversion program for mentally ill adults as a result of the charge. I wouldn't be too surprised if Chris was being a nuisance in a public place, was politely asked to stop doing what he was doing, ignored the requests, and then when he was asked to leave, tard raged and was arrested.

 

Very rarely do I feel bad for Barb, but reading this makes sparks a little bit of sympathy.

Imagine being in your late 70s, you spent your whole life thinking you’re gonna raise some kids and then they move out at 18, you’re going to sit back with your spouse and enjoy a quiet life for a while. Now you’re 77 years old and you have to remind your 37 year old child that they shouldn’t make fart noises in a courtroom, your 37 year old child talks back to you.

It’s a little sad

 

Who still has a fidget spinner in 2019?

I’m kind of surprised the debt collectors are going so far as to hire a lawyer to take him to court. Usually they just harass you over the phone until you either agree to pay or thy give up. Seems like these guys are pretty serious about wanting their money.

 

I think the company Chris owes money to buys bad debt, so it's not surprising they go so far as hiring a lawyer to try to get people to pay up.
From what I understand, a lot of inexperienced lawyers cut their teeth in court cases as attorneys in debt cases. Even Abraham Lincoln had an early court case where he defended a debtor.

 

Would’ve been so great to get some video or audio of the days proceedings. I know it would probably be hard since recording is likely prohibited but I love seeing weirdos being weird and just doing weird stuff in public, especially Chris king weirdo himself.

 

Hello again, the Green County District Court has updated the records, after finding in favour of the PRA. Chris owes them $2,681.70 before court fees ($110 in total I think).

I am aware of all the speculation on garnishment, but I feel that the financial situation would be dire if a creditor found a way to file a involuntary bankruptcy petition against Chris. There are four types: Chapters 7, 11, 12 and 13.

1. Chapter 13 won’t happen because Chris has no regular earnings other than his Patreon, which is not guaranteed if he keeps falling behind on his promises. The SSI/SSDI is not likely to count.
   
2. Chapter 12 is also irrelevant since that’s all agricultural.
3. Chapter 11 could be possible if Chris is willing to recognise the debt situation and work with the creditors. I’ll leave you to decide on whether it is possible or not.
   
4. Chapter 7, well, is a “straight bankruptcy”. but things get a bit complicated because Barbara owns the house.

Source: https://www.vsb.org/site/publications/the-bankruptcy-process

 

Chapter 7 could result in reposition Chris' car, if its worth anything, they likely won't take the house as the debt isn't that large. Then again there is this passage:

Generally, there are no minimum financial requirements for a debtor to file a bankruptcy case. However the law now has certain financial requirements for filing a petition under Chapter 7. Specifically, a debtor must pass the “means test,” which compares your family’s current monthly income with the statewide median income and then, if your income is above the median level, it uses IRS standard expense deductions to determine whether a presumption of abuse would exist if you were to file a Chapter 7 petition. In that case, you may be required to use Chapter 13 (where you must pay at least some portion of your debts). Note that certain debt restrictions or financial requirements also apply in Chapter 12 or 13 bankruptcy cases, which then may require you to file Chapter 11.

 

I don't think Chris owns anything of value. The house is still owned by the bank, yeah, the cars might be worth something (if Chris does in fact own them and not some creditor), if someone wants to go through the trouble of repossessing them. Unless Chris skips out on payments, he'll probably just make the minimum payments and that will be that.

IIRC the debt is under $3000, which Chris could probably panhandle in a few months.

Chris isn't quite judgment proof, but he's pretty close.

Eventually it will be very hard for Chris to get credit, and then he'll have to live on just his tugboat and internet panhandling.

 

Chris is the Teflon Trespasser. Chris' superpower is being delusion and delirium incarnate, and his costume is "crossdressing manchild."

(The Kiwi who went to the trial said Chris was wearing the new Classic 2.0 -- that blue and orange thing, a skirt, and leggings.)

 

At this point that is the only reason I observe him now. It's tragic and I have a bad feeling about the outcome but his descent into madness is hard to resist