Andy keeps digging…

Posted on January 18, 2017 in Uncategorized

There’s an old saying “If you find yourself in a hole, STOP DIGGING!!!”  Andy Esquivel is in it about as deep as you can get without hitting water, and yet he still refuses to face the facts.  

Andy is flat broke. He is unemployed.  He lives with his mom.  He’s collecting a few hundred dollars a month in unemployment (see this unemployment report which Andy filed with the court in November).  He’s got judgments against him of over $37,000, including $24,000 in back child support.  He’s been convicted of two felonies and has only narrowly avoided jail time.  Yet in spite of all this, Andy keeps playing with fire!

In Tuesday’s hearing before Judge Connors, Andy was presented with the facts.  He owes over $13,000 in restitution and fines, he was allowed to make payments of $500 per month, he failed to make those payments (because he couldn’t afford it) and now he’s $1,550 behind. The judge is giving Andy a lot of rope.  He gave Andy one last chance to make arrangements with the court after Andy blew off his probation.  Andy was in a pickle.  He needed to explain to the Judge how he was going to catch up in order to keep from going to jail.

Andy’s solution?

Promise Judge Connors that he’ll have the entire $13,203.71 (and counting) paid off within the next 45 days.  Here’s a guy who crying to ORS because he can’t afford to pay $460 a month in back child support, has no verifiable employment, doesn’t own a car (and doesn’t even have a valid Utah driver’s license, so he couldn’t drive one if he did), lives off of his girlfriend, and yet he’s promising the court that he can come up with $13k in a little over a month?  Not only that, he’s literally betting his freedom on it.

S-T-U-P-I-D-!-!-!

So on February 28th, Andy is going to walk into a 2nd District courtroom and explain to the prosecutor and the Judge why (a) he lied to them about being able to cough up a wad of cash thick enough to choke an elephant, (b) why he hasn’t been making his agreed upon payments for the last four months, and (c) why they shouldn’t violate him to jail immediately and throw the key into the Jordan river.

GOOD LUCK with that, Andy.  

Here’s the courtroom audio for those who are curious.

January 17th review hearing audio [MP3]

Andy apparently thinks this can go on indefinitely.  He seems to have convinced himself that if he throws out enough BS and plays dumb long enough, the court will eventually get bored and let him walk.  Unfortunately for Andy, courts are patient and courts are final.  He may be getting a lot of rope, but that’s not for him to escape with – it’s for him to hang himself with.  At some point (after the very last bit of doubt has been erased) the courts will clamp down and Andy will feel the sting.

In the meantime, Enjoy your freedom, Andy.  You have 42 days to prove you’re real (which you’re not).  After that, this blog is going to get really entertaining.

UPDATE: Andy showed up with eight hundred bucks ($800).  Court audio coming soon.